Okay, I take it back. The BBC did tackle the A4e fraud question on Newsnight last night. If you missed it (as I did) you can catch up on iplayer here 25 minutes in. Paul Mason summarised Eddie Hutchinson's evidence, picking out all the juicy bits. He then showed the 2009 internal A4e report which, he said, they had handed to the DWP only to be told that they weren't interested because they were concentrating on current programmes. Mason said that Hutchinson had been surprised to learn of this report. (He joined the company the following year.)
Emily Maitliss then interviewed Chris Grayling. She wasn't sufficiently clued up about the contracts, but the main points got across. Grayling insisted that the allegations were not about the Work Programme, and that the detailed investigation done by the DWP's audit team and Ernst & Young had found no evidence of systemic fraud.
Maitliss tried the obvious questions. Is A4e a fit and proper company? If this was a fraudulent benefits claimant he would be "down on them like a ton of bricks". Grayling stonewalled, but said that there were "significant doubts" about the evidence and "significant doubts" about Eddie Hutchinson.
So the strategy is clear. Suggest that Hutchinson is a liar.
Maitliss not being clued up seems to be a recurring problem. Why is she there? She's very decorative but surely on a programme of this nature that shouldn't be anywhere near enough?
ReplyDeleteI can't go along with that. None of the journalists (with the exception of Paul Mason) know the intricacies of w2w, and Maitliss was much better than, e.g., Kirsty Wark. The line, "Is this a fit and proper company?" is one that might stick.
DeleteGrayling cannot admit he is wrong, He has tied himself to a4e and the work programme. He cannot allow people to think there I anything wrong or he will have lost ALL confidence (not that I ever had much about him). His reputation is Closely tied to the work programme he will not allow his reputation to be destroyed.
ReplyDeletePaul Mason is a sound guy. I hope he doesn't let this one go. I don't expect he will either.
ReplyDeleteGrayling squirms as he should. The heat is getting closer.
The Anonymouse
ReplyDeleteHis reputation is Closely tied to the work programme he will not allow his reputation to be destroyed.
I think his credibility and his reputation is very weak.
Contrast and compare.
I see the latest report was not retrospectively linked with previous audits and reports about A4e. Criminals would be delighted if this was the case with police investigations and interviews down at the police station.
This only weakens the case for the work programme.Unemployed people will be suspicious of engaging with the main work programme providers given the reputation of A4e and this Government.
Having read the Hutchinson report, it does sound a little like a disgruntled employee, but... In paragraph 74, he refers to internal squablings over data security and client confidentiality - Both points I had raised with both my MP and the local JCP as a matter of grave concern. Suffice to say, I received little in the way of assurances from the JCP, and it would seem that the matter was pretty much ignored. The only noticable effort to address the question of privacy was instruction from my (so called) adviser not to listen to other client conversations. An impossible task when said conversations were conducted feet apart !
ReplyDeleteAfter due consideration, I feel some of my complaints stemming from my involvement with A4e somewhat vindicated. Just need a few more good people in the right position to turn the screws and increase the pressure on this.
I agree with your comments 100%. The jcp don't listen to me, screw the last nail in the a4e coffin, and let's them gracefully rest in peace, that's what i think and hope!!
DeleteThis is not related to the topic under discussion, but I thought you might like to know, if you aren't already aware, that a very big fish has swallowed BEST LTD recently - the WP provider for west and South Yorkshire.
ReplyDeleteINTERSERVE PLC, which has fingers in just about every public sector pie around, has purchased BEST. BEST is to be rebranded as INTERSERVE WORKING FUTURES LTD in the very near future...
Anon 25 May 2012 14:42, thanks for that info. I have had personal experience with BEST before or BEAST as I liked to call them.
DeleteI noticed Grayling was very careful to put the word 'systemic' in every time he mentioned the word fraud. They say this as they know whatever is uncovered they can try and get out of it by saying it isn't systemic. By that argument you could say anything about anything. For example, there is no systemic abuse in the care system, there is no systemic doping in professional sports, there is no systemic miscarriages of justices in British courts, there is no systemic corruption in Local Authorities etc. Does that mean that all those things, therefore, do not happen?
ReplyDeleteI think Grayling may also be painting himself into a corner with his systemic defense, in that he is virtually admitting that quality of service is completely irrelevant as long as there is no organised crime level of fraud.
It is like dealing with a naughty child,if there is no fraud prove it...bloody simple
ReplyDeleteHow do you prove a negative?
DeleteIs the sky blue? The grass green? These "people" in charge are so caught up in their own delusions that they will not admit that they have made a huge mistake.
DeleteMargaret Hodge says that Mr Hutchinson was a "credible witness." More people are likely to believe her than anything they might hear from IDS:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18204561
Good for Margaret Hodge. She & Liam Byrne now have IDS and Grayling firmly by the spheres, it seems to me.
This just shows the British political system is messed up. It doesn't have to be the current dribble labour were no better. If work contracts had gone to British companies then jobs would have been created and although still there unemployment would go down.
ReplyDeleteI have read what you have put and agree with some disagree with others. At some stage something has to be done about the whole welfare system. I had a rise in my Jsa recently and felt they were rewarding me for being unemployed. What i want is a job not a rise.
I have worked for the Jc in the past and can say some practices there were not good but no one would listen. I hated it. I have worked for a couple of the prices on temporary contracts and can say that more good things happen whilst I accept the bad do to. It would be interesting to hear any good things about the w2w sector as I am sure there are some.
Lets audit the whole welfare system and see what we get. Include the dwp and Jc because they are part of the problem. Investigate all the senior people involved or been involved in the last ten years. It will take time but it needs doing.
You are completely right, politics are completely messed up. There are too many organisations involved in supposingly helping the unemployed, i've unemployed, i feel, that i'm past from pillar to post, first wiseability, then a4e. Get rid of them all, (i'm a undermined customer), after they have all been sussed out. I think the unemployed should be under the JCP and not farmed out to these FATCOW providers, namely a4e, etc.
DeleteI feel the unemployed should be able to sue the goverment, for falsly sending people onto the work programme, its illegal.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter how many times you say it, the WP is not illegal.
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