Comments on: A4e: a scandal so big it could be seen from 2008

By: antony

antony — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:51:54 +0000

A4e is awful. I hate a4e. Time wasters money wasters wasting the country

By: Mike Matthews

Mike Matthews — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:07:24 +0000

I used to work for Working Links, who also provided employment advice under the JCP contract. There was an issue with them, where they got paid £1500 for getting someone into work and they stayed there for 26 weeks. All well and good, but if someone was referred to them and they already had a job lined up, they were fast-tracked through the system so Working Links could claim the £1,500 as if THEY got them the job.

I also lost my job there for reasons I am barred from discussing – nothing criminal, except immoral on their side ! – and it was clear to me then they were not the pukka organisation they claimed to be. I’m not saying they were on the scale of A4e, but their approach to their customers could be cavalier, and the things I saw in terms of the way they treated staff was awful.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 15:44:57 +0000

A4e – Professionals or Unfit for purpose?

Fit for purpose?

‘My view is that this company has demonstrated that it is unfit to hold this kind of contract’.
MP Fiona Mactaggart who sits on the Public Accounts committee 2012

“I have had so many serious concerns and allegations raised with me about what now appears to systemic poor practice and fraud at A4e that I shall be calling on the minister on Monday to undertake a transparent, thorough and urgent investigation,”
MP Margaret Hodge, chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee 2012

A “Social Purpose Company”?

A4e is notorious for its now threadbare pretentions to being a “social purpose” company.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/28/why-work-programme-bad-business

Bullying?

One whistleblower … said: “I have witnessed colleagues who were bullied by management so badly that it caused stress and depression leading to them resigning.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/worked-over-tory-jobs-tsar-737191

Paying Contractors?

And The People’s Supermarket, which worked with A4e, said it had not received £15,000 for helping 17 people into work.
Boss Kate Bull said: “We feel we have been totally used.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/worked-over-tory-jobs-tsar-737191

Touting for Business?

Supermarket group Sainsbury’s claimed that A4e had “persistently approached” its stores asking it to take on job seekers on unpaid work experience, “against our wishes”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/25/a4e-welfare-emma-harrison-properties

Ethics?

“A4e, a training company which is at the centre of an investigation into allegations of fraud, made jobseekers take up the unpaid four-week placements in at least two of its London offices.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9099947/A4e-made-jobseekers-work-in-own-offices.html

Several whistleblowers from around the country had already told the Mail about dubious practices at A4e while asking to retain their anonymity.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2106051/Emma-Harrison-resigns-A4e-quitting-government-role-amid-fraud-claims.html

You decide.

By: Kay Fabe

Kay Fabe — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:56:09 +0000

“This is all the more shocking because the activities of A4e should come as no surprise – exactly the same scenario played out in Australia under the Howard government when it implemented the original scheme which the Tories have explicitly copied.”

Heh-heh.. this is the point of their doing it, isn’t it? Ripping off the taxpayer. I’ve said for years that welfare reform was simply a raid on the public purse in a socially acceptable disguise. It’s getting more and more obvious I was right.

By: Eowyn Rohan

Eowyn Rohan — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 10:35:01 +0000

Lets not ignore the fact that other organisations, held in similar esteem, have creamed £Billions through the New Deal, Flexible New Deal and Work Programme, including Working Links.

And, without the Proligate Era of reckless spending and economic incompetence under Gordon “Mr Casino Banker” Brown, supported by New Labour, such organisations would never have been able to get a foothold.

By: Eric Greenwood

Eric Greenwood — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 09:49:04 +0000

Detectives are investigating the alleged misuse of thousands of pounds’ worth of Government vouchers meant to help the jobless back into work.
Officers from Thames Valley Police’s Economic Crime Unit are examining claims that staff at employment firm A4e used the vouchers to boost their annual salaries instead of handing them to the unemployed clients they were supposed to be helping.
Staff at A4e – the firm built up by multi-millionaire Emma Harrison – are believed to have stolen the vouchers and exchanged them for goods in high street stores. The widening of the inquiry comes as a male A4e employee was interviewed under caution by Thames Valley detectives.

I have been 3 times to a4e.

By: michael booth

michael booth — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 11:32:40 +0000

who do these people think they are?wasnt slavery abolished,