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A4E Emma Harrison: nice work if you can get it
Big piece on Emma Harrison, CEO of A4E, one of the prime contractors in the government’s Work Programme (in every sense of the word).
The chair of the public accounts committee, the former Labour minister Margaret Hodge, says aspects of A4e’s past record on welfare-to-work are “abysmal”; one of her Tory colleagues has used the word “dreadful”. Moreover, during her committee’s proceedings two weeks ago, Hodge loudly called into question the amount of money A4e takes from the government, and how much goes into the pockets of its senior figures.
One of the most illuminating conversations I have is with an insider at a charity that is one of A4e’s sub-contractors on the Work Programme. Harrison’s image might be that of a workaholic go-getter, but this source tells me that A4e has handed them hardly any work at all: they have been working with A4e since the start of the Work Programme in June last year, and have had “less than 10” people referred to them. They suspect that they were mere “bid candy”, inserted into A4e’s pitch to the government so as tick the right big society boxes, but now all but marginalised. This suggestion blurs into another allegation made about A4e’s relationship with its Work Programme partners: that it has a habit of creaming off easy cases and handing people with ingrained problems – drugs and alcohol issues, usually – to charities and social enterprises.
But there is a bigger issue: whether, particularly in times like these, the government should be allowing people such as Harrison to take so much money from the public purse, particularly when the results seem so uncertain and the payback seems to include all that negative publicity.
Emma Harrison: nice work if you can get it
Private Eye also do a piece in their latest issue, titled “Welfare to Work: Cash in the Attic, which goes over similar ground, as well as noting A4E’s latest accounts to March 2011 showing a 57 per cent increase to £15.1m. They note that “Making the right political noises seems to have paid off for Harrison, who has been appointed as David Cameron’s ‘families champion’ too”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17122796
Four ex-staff of government contractor A4e bailed in fraud probe
Dave told the Commons: “The investigation needs to be thorough, it needs to get to the truth and then we can take into account its findings.”
Fast-food chain Burger King has become the latest firm to pull out of the government’s controversial work experience scheme for jobless people.
It said it had registered to take on youngsters at its Slough headquarters but withdrew due to “public concerns”.
Burger King leaves work experience scheme for jobless - BBC News
The employment minister has claimed a small number of activists are trying to “destabilise” firms involved in a controversial work experience scheme.
The scheme allows unemployed youngsters to do unpaid work for up to two months without losing benefits but has been criticised by some as “slave labour”.
Chris Grayling said firms were “jumpy” because of a “false campaign” he blamed on the Socialist Workers’ Party.
Minister hits out at ‘false’ work scheme campaign - BBC News
Well isn’t that just great. Isn’t that just abso-flipping-lutely fan-blooming-tastic. Just when you thought the loony Left had reached rock bottom – with their sagacious proposals to “hang the bankers” and put taxes up to 80 per cent – they have come up with something even worse. There are so-called socialists in London who are now taking active steps to scupper young people’s chances of finding employment.
The loony Left, out to destroy youngsters’ hopes of a job - The Telegraph
written answer to parliamentary question shows A4e awarded contracts worth more than £225,000,000 between 2009-2011, excluding income from 5 work programme contracts which are ‘dependent on company performance’ -
here’s link to hansard -
Newsnight last night had a report on A4e, which is now available on the BBC website.
Welfare-to-work firm A4e knew of widespread potential fraud and systemic failures by management to control it, a leaked document suggests.
BBC Newsnight has obtained the results of a confidential 2009 internal audit of work by A4e’s top recruiters.
The auditors found staff claiming for putting people into jobs which did not exist, jobs which did not qualify for payment and fabricating paperwork.
A4e responded to the report by saying that it was a draft document only.
It said that as a result of the internal audit it had made “significant enhancements” to all its systems, including appointing external auditors. It added that further investigation had found only five irregular claims had been made, all relating to a single employee.
A4e said it had reported this to the Department for Work and Pensions’ Risk Assurance Division and that the department had said it was satisfied the matter had been resolved and that its audit requirements had been met.
I saw it. It doesn’t take Nostradamus to predict that handing government contracts to private sector profit makers invites greed and corruption. And Liam Byrne was far from convincing. To be sure the Tories might have had a closer look before renewing A4e’s contract but would a Labour government looked any closer? I doubt it. It does show though once again David Cameron’s floored judgement by bringing Emma Harrison closer to government. Remember Andy Coulson. Sadly, if there are any prosecutions following this it will be junior employees who get thrown to the wolves. You won’t see Emma Harrison in the dock that’s for sure.
BBC news report that An eighth person has been arrested over allegations of fraud in connection with welfare-to-work company A4e. The 19-year-old woman was detained by appointment at a police station in Berkshire earlier. She was questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraud before being released on bail until July.
A written statement has today been made by Minister for Employment, Chris Grayling, about A4e and the DWP’s Mandatory Work Activity contract with them. Below is a summary:
In March 2012, against a background of public commentary on A4E, the Department was made aware of an allegation in respect of their separate Mandatory Work Activity contract.
In the light of the allegation received, the Department announced it would audit its commercial relationships with A4E. The Department’s Internal Audit and Investigations team undertook this audit, supported by Ernst and Young, and examined the controls operated by A4E on all its current contracts with DWP.
The audits for the Work Programme, the New Enterprise Allowance programme and Mandatory Work Activity are now complete. They have found no evidence of fraud in any of these contracts.
The sample evidence established that 97% of payments made related to a real participant who had been placed in a work-related activity. In the remaining 3% of cases, DWP investigators were nevertheless satisfied that the anomalies were attributable to inadequate procedures rather than fraud.
However, while the team found no evidence of fraud, it identified significant weaknesses in A4e’s internal controls on the Mandatory Work Activity contract in the South East. The documentation supporting payments was seriously inadequate, and in a small number the claim was erroneous. There was also a high incidence of non-compliance with other relevant guidance (including A4e’s own processes).
The process established prior to March fell significantly short of our expectations. As a result, the Department has concluded that continuing with this contract presents too great a risk and we have terminated the Mandatory Work Activity contract with A4e for the South East.
Full statement here Written Ministerial Statement Tuesday 15 May 2012
*Strums gently on guitar with flowers in hair while wearing best kaftan* When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn!
*Strums gently on guitar with flowers in hair while wearing best kaftan* When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn!
Perhaps this should be the theme song for NAWRA, we could all sing it at the end of conferences like the Labour Party sing Auld Lang Syne.
Spoke to client this week who was on the Work Programme (not A4e). Client had previously had a responsible job and held a maths A level. Contractor could only suggest client should undertake a basic maths course to improve their job prospects. What a waste of public money.
Where has all our money gone?
Long time passing.
Where has all our money gone?
Long time ago.
Where has all our money gone?
Gone to shysters everyone.
Oh when will they ever learn?
Oh when will they ever learn?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9286323/Welfare-to-work-fraud-scandal.html
And so this sorry saga rumbles on and on and on…...
Employment minister Chris Grayling told the BBC’s Newsnight he had “significant doubts” about the allegations, adding: “There are questions about the individual who gave that evidence.”
And Iain Duncan Smith has written to former Labour welfare ministers pressing them to reveal what advice they received about A4e. Sources close to the secretary of state said he is angry at claims from his Labour shadow Liam Byrne that the minister was “asleep at the wheel”.
In his letter Mr Duncan Smith said the committee had only received a “limited amount of information” and that to “ensure complete openness” advice provided to previous ministers should be passed to his department.
“It is also important to highlight the fact that none of the evidence we have seen so far or any of the allegations from alleged whistleblowers relate to the current government contracts, only to contracts procured by the previous government, of which you were a leading member,” he wrote to Mr Byrne.
“It is for this reason, and in the interests of transparency, it is crucial for all advice received by previous Labour ministers in this area to be released.”
Ipswich Unemployed Action has published a story from the latest edition of Private Eye, apparently revealing more “issues” arising from A4E and the Work Programme.
Welfare-to-work contractor A4E has found a new way to make money from the government’s struggling Work programme: claim bonuses for people who already have jobs.
The programme supposedly pays by results, giving cash to firms like A4E only when they get claimants off the dole. The government considers claimants ‘attached’ to A4E and co for such purposes only once they have had an interview. But internal A4E memos obtained by claimants group Ipswich Unemployed Action earlier this year included the instruction that as long as they grab claimants for an interview up to the day before starting a job, “you will be eligible for the attachment fee and any subsequent outcome/sustainment payments.”
For more, see the IUA website Private Eye: Ipswich Unemployed Action Exposes A4E Fiddle
In what is described as an extraordinary performance, Emma Harrison told Channel 4 News she was “bullied” out of her job in a Westminster “maelstrom” and rejected claims that A4E was missing targets for the government’s work programme. She resigned as Cameron’s adviser and then as head of A4e in February, amid fraud investigations into the firm, but she remains its biggest shareholder.
She rejected claims A4e had found jobs lasting at least six months for fewer than 4% of people referred under the work programme, adding she had been a “useful face for the politics people to have a go at”. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has set a 5.5% minimum target for private firms in the payment-by-results arrangement.
Harrison repeatedly said the information was wrong, but she was not able to supply the correct figures.
For a video of the interview, see I was ‘bullied’ out of A4e, claims Emma Harrison