Quote:
Emma Harrison, the prime minister's former family tsar who quit amid allegations of "fat cat" pay and fraud, received around £1.7m over two years from leasing out properties, including her family stately home, to the firm she built on the back of state-funded welfare-to-work programmes.
Records show that money was funnelled into two companies and a pension fund in which Harrison or her husband has a controlling interest.
The couple were paid £316,000 for allowing A4e to use their country home for board meetings and other events. Emma and James Harrison were paid another £1.4m for leasing out two other properties to Emma Harrison's own firm, including its Sheffield headquarters.
|
Thousands of pounds here, millions of pounds there.
and the tax payer moans about £53 for a benefit claimant.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...son-properties
Quote:
The Labour MP Margaret Hodge, chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, who has seen a copy of Ms Verwaerde's complaint, said it was "horrifying". Tomorrow she will call on Chris Grayling, the Employment minister, to carry out an "urgent investigation" into the state of A4e's contracts with the DWP. She will also present him with documentation outlining allegations that she has received from people describing themselves as clients of A4e or previous employees of the firm.
"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," she said. "When public money is at risk, the common-sense thing is to suspend these contracts until we can all be confident that taxpayers' money is being properly used."
She added that current Work Programme contracts were set up in a "black box" fashion and without sufficient IT systems to check contractors' claims. "The fact that we don't have systems in place to check the veracity of claims, given the history of this company, makes everything very worrying," she said. Ms Hodge plans to set out her allegations in a letter to Mr Grayling or to raise an emergency question in Parliament.
Ms Verwaerde, whose ambition is to work in the police service one day, said she feels she has been failed by the very service meant to help her. "It felt like I was being pushed into a corner," she added. "I told A4e: 'I need the terms and conditions of the job in writing, as I can't agree to do a job until I know what I'm agreeing to.' They told me this is not how business worked and I would look awkward if I asked for information in writing. They then said I could try the job out without telling the Jobcentre. I thought this was ridiculous."
Ms Verwaerde is not the only dissatisfied customer. A dossier of evidence and complaints given to Ms Hodge, details of which The Independent on Sunday has seen, include allegations of past financial fraud, in-work bullying, claims of bad treatment and accusations that the welfare-to-work company delivered poorly run services. One complaint, written by someone who describes himself as a former A4e employee and whom the IoS has agreed not to name, described A4e as "nothing short of a gravy train". He said fraud at A4e had been "systemic" and "common practice".
|
Fraud, scams, and fraud is rife in Britain at the moment.
and it's always tax payers money.
looks like A4e is finished then. back to normal soon
there we were only a few weeks ago saying how much benefit fraud is costing us. only we were looking in the wrong place, and at the wrong people
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...l-7440966.html