The BBC is
reporting that three more people have been arrested by police in connection with the enquiry into alleged "fraud by misrepresentation" at A4e in Slough. That brings the total arrested to eleven. This investigation has been going on for nearly a year.
Well, well, well.....
ReplyDeleteI second your Well,well, Well.. ;)
DeleteIt's shocking that A4e continues to be handed huge amounts of public money in spite of the fraud investigations.
ReplyDeleteIt's taking an inordinate amount of time for the police to sort out the mess at A4e! It's giving A4e plenty of time to cook the books and no doubt the motors on their shredders too.
ReplyDeleteHow many more A4e employees need to be arrested before 'rogue' becomes 'systemic'?
ReplyDeleteMaybe we can all get jobs investigating fraud at a4e
ReplyDeleteOf course we have to say that no-one has been formally charged yet. A man being arrested does not automatically make him guilty. These A4e staff could just be 'helping the police with their inquiries'. These A4e staff may well be innocent.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it does seem that something fishy is going on at A4e or they are very unlucky given that these arrests concerning fraud allegations seem to be affecting them the most.
And this Slough branch of A4e seems unluckiest of all given the number of arrests there. How long before this branch is shut down?
It closed some time ago.
DeleteOkay, thanks for that Historian. Not surprising really!
DeleteThe Slough branch is still open. I've been going there since last month and have another appointment today.
DeleteThanks, I stand corrected. I thought I'd read that it closed.
DeleteNo worries. I was half expecting/hoping for some sort of police or media presence there. Sadly nothing of the sort happened. A friend of mine was made redundant in 2010 from a company in Slough. Last year the police contacted him about A4e as he'd been sent there from the jobcentre. He went to A4e voluntarily as his redundancy payment meant he was well over the savings limit. He only went once then found a job by his own means. The police never told him exactly what A4e had said they had done for him, just that they wanted a statement about his time there, and how many times he went. I only found this blog as i googled A4e to see what they are all about as I've been sent there. I'm actually claiming ESA and have been placed in the WRAG there.
DeleteI attended the WP today,during the course of the 1 to 1 meeting I commented on the Tailored aspect that Hoban quotes constantly,the Adviser looked stunned"we do not have the funding to tailor anything,one size fits all unless you are under 25 and we find you an apprenticeship "
ReplyDeleteIn case people are unaware on this programme the apprentice is paid £90 for a 30 hour week,the employer is reimbursed £87 for a period of 26 weeks,all sounds good and well,a friends son works at a local pub,he is on week 24 and has learned a lot,the chef is leaving shortly and the owner wants him to stay on all good.
After he met with the Owner,it was explained that business although steady was not what it use to be,even though the chef was on £6.50 ph the best he could offer was £150 for a 50 hour week,if not he needed to apply else where or go on the dole.
He has accepted this as "It is better than nothing" I mentioned this situation to my Adviser and the reply was "It is common place" Any thoughts,I told him he is nuts as it violates NMW,he replied it is still better than the WP...He may be right,but is this what we can all expect in the future?
I've received a comment from a group (?) calling themselves Charity Watch UK (http://charitywatchuk.wordpress.com) which I'm reluctant to publish because there are things about their tone which bothers me - somewhat OTT - and there is nothing about who is behind it. Check the site out for yourself, if you like.
ReplyDelete