How Welfare to Work Companies Cook the Books – and why this Government will let them

Bungling Employment Minister Chris Grayling was quick to tell us that last week’s appalling Work Programme performance figures were not to be taken too seriously as ‘revised’ figures will be released in Autumn.

This will give Welfare to Work companies more time to pick up some ‘job outcomes’ from people who have got jobs under their own steam. With claimants sentenced to two years on the Work Programme, the odds are that eventually many people will find work despite the scant help offered by welfare to work training companies.

This is just one of the perfectly legal ways that Welfare to Work companies can cook the books.  Below is a handy guide to what these shysters are really up to behind the scenes.

Rorting

The Australian Government recently announced an investigation into their own Welfare to Work sector after it was revealed that many companies were picking up lucrative Government fees for placing people in jobs that individuals had actually found themselves.  This is known as ‘rorting’.  In the UK this practice is entirely legal and even encouraged.

Recent leaked documents revealed how the fraud ridden A4e were instructing staff on how to claim a job outcome fee, which could be worth up to £13,000, even when someone has found themselves a job before formally joining the Work Programme.  More often claimants are harassed, sometimes for months,  into providing details of any employment they may have found during or after leaving welfare to work provision.  Welfare to work companies have hoodwinked this and previous governments into believing that no-one is capable of getting a job without first attending a motivational training session or having an A4e advisor massacre their CV.  The truth is that people find themselves jobs everyday with no help at all from welfare to work vultures.  There is no obligation to tell Work Programme providers where you are working should you find a job.

Double Funds

Many Welfare to Work companies, and larger charities who may have Work Programme sub-contracts, often have other funding in place aimed at helping people find work or gain qualifications.  These could be European Social Fund (ESF) contracts, lottery money or even sub-contracts to deliver training for local colleges.  Despite the Tory lie that they invented payment by results, these contracts will usually be ‘output based’.  This has been the standard arrangement across the sector for 20 years, and means payment is dependent on securing a certain number of job outcomes or qualifications.

As an example, a charity may have an ESF contract to work with long term unemployed people.  They are paid depending on how many people they place into work.  Should they also have a Work Programme sub-contract then they can sign participants up to the Work Programme as well, meaning they get paid twice when anyone finds a job.

It is not unheard of for providers to buy job outcomes from other providers who are operating different contracts.  This can be done simply by using a combination of threats and bribes to encourage claimants to fill in paperwork to sign them up to the Work Programme.  A4e are notorious for using vouchers to encourage certain behavior,  such as forcing people to just sign the damn paperwork and then they can leave.

Another form of double fund is when a provider has a contract to carry out some form of public services, for example providing security for a major international sporting event.  This leaves Welfare to Work companies like Serco and G4S with two lucrative opportunities.  Firstly they can mandate people on welfare to work schemes to workfare to carry out the public service contract, saving a fortune in wages.  Secondly they can cherry pick their Welfare to Work participants and employ them on the public service contract picking up fat job outcome fees in the process.  A4e are notorious for staffing their own company with participants from their welfare to work provision and claiming job outcome payments.  This is entirely legal.

Friends and Family

Like all of us,when in trouble the Welfare to Work industry calls on friends and family for support.  Staff will be encouraged to hunt down unemployed acquaintances and family members.  Participants in welfare to work schemes may well be asked to do the same, with promises of bribes in the form of bonus payments or vouchers if they can track down an elusive ‘job ready’ candidate.  Job Ready candidates are the Holy Grail of the welfare to work industry – representing as they do free money.  These are people quite capable of, and quite likely to find a job under their own steam.  When they do the provider picks up a payment just as long as they’ve managed to convince them to sign the right paperwork.

Mass Outreach

A variation on this theme is using a form of mass outreach to gather multiple sign ups to welfare to work provision.  This could involve a bunch of A4e spivs descending on an independent living centre, homelessness project or anywhere else they know they will find lots of benefit claimants.  The company can then sign up claimants en masse, no doubt after giving some gushing presentation about how wonderful their provision is.

The company knows that some of these people will get jobs under their own steam.  Even if they don’t they will still pick up between £400 and £500 pounds as an ‘attachment fee’ on the Work Programme.  So should a welfare to work company manage to sign up five claimants on sickness benefits they will receive two and a half grand, just for an afternoons work.  If just one of those people happens to find a long term job, then the company can claim up to a staggering £13,000.

The company doesn’t even have to do anything but sit back and watch the money roll in. This leads nicely onto …

Creaming and Parking

This is the practice under which the easiest to help are creamed off and given  intensive support (or harassment, often in the form of pr0longued workfare) to get them off benefits and into a job – any job.  These are people who would have got jobs themselves, often skilled workers or graduates.  As to everyone else, well they can be left to rot, or parked as it is known.

Under the ‘black box’ style of provision on the Work Programme, welfare to work companies are able to almost anything they like to ‘help’ someone back into work.  This can include doing nothing at all and in fact that makes good business sense.  It’s a numbers game.  Some of even the hardest to help will find work on their own, meaning yet more money for providers.  As to the rest, well the company already have the attachment fee in the bank.

The most lucrative way to manage the hardest to help is to not spend a penny on them.  This is far more profitable than throwing endless resources at people who the welfare to work companies know are unlikely to find work.

Working Tax Credit

Working Tax Credit is payable to people in self-employment who work for 30 hours a week.  It is paid at a rate of £20 a week less than the dole, but claimants no longer have to sign on.  Claimants do not have to be earning any money from their self-employment to claim Working Tax Credit, although in the long term this will raise alarm bells with HMRC.

Last months unemployment figures revealed that a huge rise in the number of  people becoming self-employed.  There is some anecdotal evidence that welfare to work companies are ‘encouraging’ people to sign off and become self-employed.  Companies can claim outcome fees should this happen.

Working Tax Credit for self employed people meets many of the aims of Universal Credit, the new benefits system being introduced in 2056.  Claimants can easily take up short periods of part time work, casual work or self employed work and declare it quite legally without losing benefits.  With the payments set at just over two thirds of dole payments and far less administration, it also saves the tax money as well.  Unfortunately Universal Credit will end all this for anyone who can’t prove they are earning the equivalent of minimum wage for 35 hours a week.

If welfare to work firms are bullying people into self-employment the claimants will have their lives devastated when the new regime comes in if they have not sustained the necessary income.  Even before then, HMRC regularly make checks to determine whether someone is genuinely working 30 hours a week on their business.  Should the HMRC decide they aren’t, then claimants can find themselves not just back on the dole, but in debt for the tax credits they have already been claimed.  Not that welfare to work company bosses will care.  They’ll be off mansion hunting with the money like Emma Harrison by then.

Workfare

Workfare is slightly different, but once again it is a mechanism which helps welfare to work companies gain tax payer’s cash rather than actually reducing unemployment.  Sending people on workfare is cheaper than having them sitting on job search training courses for starters.  More importantly it is a way for welfare to work companies to mop up any jobs that may have otherwise gone to unemployed people who aren’t on their provision.

It is noticeable that many workfare schemes have involved large employers like Tesco or Holland & Barrett.  If a welfare to work company can get their foot in the door with a big company they can effectively take over their recruitment.  Where Tesco might have once approached the Jobcentre with 100 jobs on offer, A4e can step in and promise them fives times as many workers for the same dosh.  The pay off is that Tesco take on the number of paid staff they were planning to recruit anyway and the welfare to work companies can claim an outcome fee for every job.  No jobs are created by doing this, and indeed they may even be lost as Tesco now have a glut of unpaid labour.  So even when Welfare to Work companies are at what they pretend is their best, they are simply moving unemployment around.  As usual it’s claimants who lose out as the job market shrinks and unemployed people are forced to work without pay.

These are just some of the scams that enable welfare to work companies to pick up huge wads of tax payers cash for doing basically nothing.  They are all more or less legal, and no-one’s paying that much attention anyway.  Employment Minister Chris Grayling, like ministers before him, needs his welfare to work provision to be a success.  Scams like these help boost the dire performance figures that the welfare to work sector achieves.

The welfare to work sector is one big scam and always has been.  It began under Labour and now a Tory Government is throwing £5 billion at these crooks.

This doesn’t mean unemployed people don’t need and deserve support.  Decent IT provision, internet access, quality advice on producing CVs, help with fares to interviews – all of these things can be vital for people trying to get back into work.  Unfortunately there is a scant supply of such services on the Work Programme.

Even better would be high quality acredited training, that leads to real skills and real qualifications.  NVQs were once available as part of welfare to work provision.  But that’s seen as old fashioned by welfare to work companies these days.  NVQ assessors are expensive after all.

The new style of black box welfare to work provision ranges from endless workfare to abandoning people to their own devices.  Anything that’s cheap will do.  And still the cost to the tax payer rises.  Welfare to work companies are laughing at us all the way to the bank.  And Chris Grayling’s career depends on the racket continuing.

Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid

Yet More Jobs Lost Due To Work Programme as Welfare to Work Firm Goes Bust

14 people have lost their jobs after a sub-contracter involved with the Government’s shambolic Work Programme closed their doors this week.

Eco-Actif services went into receivership after banks refused to provide loans on the basis of the Work Programme contract as it was seen to be too high risk.  According to The Guardian, their involvement with fraud ridden A4e was also “a matter of great concern to potential investors”.

Eco-Actif were a community interest company established to work with ex-offenders, single parents and those with drug or alcohol problems.  In a major embarrassment for Employment Minister Chris Grayling they were based in Sutton, just next door from the Minister’s own constituency, leafy Epsom and Ewell.

The company had a contract with beleaguered Welfare to Work company A4e, with around 500 claimants attending as part of their Work Programme provision.  Whilst the firm claim to have had good results getting people into work, under new rules companies don’t receive pay outs until 18 months after delivering the service.

Homelessness charity St Mungos recently left the Work Programme for the same reason, leaving a major gap in provision for homeless people on the flagship and flagging Government scheme.   A spokesperson for 3SC who work in partnership with A4e claimed that alternative provision was being arranged for the 500 people who’ve received an unexpected temporary reprieve from the workfare and sanction ridden Work Programme.

It is unclear however where these people will end up.  Representing as they do some of the hardest people to place into employment, they are of little interest to Welfare to Work giants like A4e.  Ex-offenders, or people misusing substances, require staff trained in risk-assessments and other expensive stuff.  A4e have no intention of paying for anything like that.  If people, who let’s be frank may have a history of violence or chaotic substance misuse, are placed into mainstream provision without adequately trained staff then the next Work Programme farce to hit the headlines may be the most tragic yet.

We should be wary of cheering any job losses due to the Government’s bungling of Welfare to Work provision.  But Eco Actif -  like so many other charities who’ve happily inflicted sanctions and workfare on vulnerable people in the hope of wads of Government cash – only have themselves to blame.

Chief executive of the company, Amanda Palmer-Roye, had previously been a cheer leader of welfare reform.  Quoted in The Guardian today it appears the scale have fallen from her eyes: “I believed it when Cameron said all that ‘the third sector should be the first sector’ stuff. I really did believe all that crap.”

It is to the ‘third sector’s’ shame that they have allowed themselves to become involved with a scheme which can see unemployed people sent on six months workfare or disabled people having benefits sanctioned for missing a meeting.  They are now learning to their cost what most people know instinctively – you can’t trust a fucking Tory.

Is Workfare Behind the G4S Olympics Farce?

G4S are one of the largest companies involved in the Government’s flagship Work Programme, the scheme currently failing miserably at helping long term unemployed people find work.

Participants on the Work Programme can be sent on unpaid work for a period of up to six months.  It is unclear whether those who refuse still face benefit sanctions as the Government have repeatedly changed the rules, plunging the scheme into confusion.  It is also not possible to find out where people are being sent on workfare as part of the Work Programme as the Government is refuses to answer Freedom of Information requests on the subject.

What is abundantly clear is that G4S have access to thousands of unemployed people, and the power to mandate them to do almost anything they choose.  Alongside this G4S had a separate contract to recruit and train thousands of Olympics Security Guards.

Now it’s clear that G4S had a business  opportunity here.  G4S can use the funding they receive on the Olympics contract to train people on the Work Programme.  Should any of the people on the Olympic contract get jobs, then G4S get to claim Job Outcome fees on their Work Programme contract.  This is known as a double fund.  Two contracts to do what appear to be different things, merged into one with huge savings for the company involved.

The other lucrative opportunity for G4S is to use unpaid workers as Olympic Security Guards, much in the way Close Protection did recently at the Queen’s Jubilee.

Is it possible that G4S panicked after the Jubilee story broke plunging their plans for an unpaid Olympics workforce into chaos?

We may never find out.  Chris Grayling, the minister in charge of the Work Programme, is unfortunately prone to lying through his teeth.  But it reveals the dangers of private sector companies handed huge and diverse contracts to carry out public services, whether they be for  stewarding and securing the Olympics or helping people get jobs.

Profit hungry sharks like G4S will cut every corner they can in the search for a quick buck.  With their operations shrouded in secrecy it is near impossible to find out exactly what’s going on.  All we know is that this represents a yet another disaster for the company who began life under the last Tory Government as Group 4 Security and quickly established themselves as a national joke.

The joke stopped being funny when G4S immigration staff killed Jimmy Mubenga whilst he was being deported.  This hasn’t stopped G4S being handed endless Government contracts to carry out everything from running prisons to harassing benefit claimants.

Once again a private company is running rampant with public services and all the Tory Party can do is wring their hands and then slip them another billion.

There is no clear evidence yet that G4S were planning on using mass workare as part of their Olympic Security provision.  But there is some.  This website mirrors the job vacancies available through JobCentre Plus.  Whilst the vacancy in no longer on the Government site the details appear legitimate.  The Job Description states: G4S OLYMPIC RECRUITMENT- G4S will be here on the 22nd February as part of Security Month to recruit for the Olympics jOBS ALL They will be interviewing in the 2nd Floor Interview Room.

Under the section indicated salary is says: Wage/salary unknown.  More tellingly it points out: This is not a job vacancy but you might find it interesting to read.

There’s also this youtube video featuring an undercover reporter, of admittedly unknown providence, who claims to have blagged his way into a job training as an Olympics Security Guard.  Unfortunately he is being interviewed for the inane conspiracy site infowars and therefore should be treated with caution.  Alongside wild speculation of a planned mass evacuation of London, he mentions that many of the people he was being trained with were unemployed and on some form of training scheme with G4S.

Grayling Hands Blank Cheque To Welfare to Work Industry

Bungling Employment Minister Chris Grayling has handed a blank cheque to money grabbing parasites like A4e and Working Links after claiming that the derisory Work Programme performance figures represent a success.

It is unclear whether Grayling’s gushing support for the fraud ridden Welfare to Work companies who run the Work Programme is down to simple naivety or something more malevolent.  With the Work Programme performance figures representing a new low for the Wefare to Work industry, it appears that the Minister has been bamboozled by the sharp talking spivs in cheap suits who run the sector.

In the 90s it was expected that 45% of people who attended Job Clubs or Employment Service Programme Centres would find jobs.  By the time the Work Programme was launched last year that figure had slipped to just 36%.  Now it appears that the Minister is quite happy with a rate of 24%, and this doesn’t even represent those who actually found work.

The Daily Telegraph recently reported that 28% of people would be expected to find jobs under their own steam with no help whatsoever from the Work Programme.  That a mere 24% of people on the Work Programme have come off benefits is therefore a disaster for the scheme which seems to be performing far worse than if the Government had done nothing at all.

It is increasingly clear that the scant help offered by the Welfare to Work sector is directed at those who would have found jobs anyway whilst the more difficult to help are abandoned.  There has been no break down in the figures for those on sickness benefits, ex-offenders or homeless people, the very groups that Work Programme was intended to work with most intensively.

Homelessness charity St Mungos recently pulled out of the scheme after revealing they had not placed a single person into employment on the Work Programme.  This followed the decision of SHP (formerly the The Single Homeless Project) to hand back their Work Programme contract after raising concerns about the ethics of the brutal sanctions regime.

Whilst the charities involved in the Work Programme have struggled financially due to a lack or referrals, the Welfare to Work companies are laughing all the way to the bank.  Despite Grayling’s claims that Work Programme providers are paid only by results, over half a billion has already been handed over to the sector.  The results have been less impressive than if the Work Programme didn’t exist.

Grayling’s continual cheering for dreadful performance figures is merely lowering the bar even further.  So desperate is he to hand over £5 billion of tax payer’s money to protect his political reputation, it now seems that any old crap the Welfare to Work industry comes up with will immediately be rewarded with wads of cash.

Despite the Work Programme, long term unemployment is rising.  The very problem that the Work Programme was established to address is getting worse and all the Employment Minister can do is sing the praises of those fucking it up so dreadfully.

Chris Grayling must be a laughing stock in the boardroom of A4e.  The worse they perform the more the Minister cheers them on.  If he’s not getting a decent kickback from these private sector poverty pimps then he’s even more incompetent then he appears.

As part of the National Week of Action Against Workfare a communications blockade aimed at poverty pimps A4e is taking place today.  Full details on facebook or simply ring their handy freephone number 0800 345 666 and ask them about exactly where the hundreds if millions spent on Work Programme is actually going.

First Statistics Reveal Work Programme To Be A Shambles

The Government today released performance figures on the flagship Work Programme which reveal that the £5 billion pound scheme is failing miserably with less than 25% of claimants off benefits after 36 weeks on the programme.

The rate of people who would be expected to find jobs without any help at all is believed to be 28%.  And today’s figures don’t even represent job outcomes.  Claimants could be off benefits due to reaching pensionable age, starting full time education, having a child, moving in with a partner or having benefits sanctioned.

In the 90s the minimum job entry rate for similar types of provision aimed at helping long term unemployed people find work was 45%. Previously Chris Grayling has boasted that 36% of people would find work on the Work Programme.

Whilst the Government state that during their time on the scheme 48% of people had some break in their benefit claim, this is little more than meaningless.  Around 100,000 people were sanctioned on the Work Programme last year, meaning benefits were stopped temporarily by the private sector poverty pimps running the scheme due to the claimant not completing mandated activity – such as workfare.  Claims can also be temporarily stopped due to a period of sickness, a change of address or any other change in personal circumstances.

It seems highly likely that this 48%, many of whom were back on benefits by the end of the tracking period, were simply sanctioned.

Further statistics, which will include job entry rates, are to be published in the Autumn.  It is already abundantly clear however that Work Programme isn’t working.  Private sector like fraudsters like A4e are being paid hundreds of millions of pounds to do little more than bully, harass and sanction benefit claimant, something the DWP were already quite adept at doing for far less money.

The figures do not tell us which benefits those attending the programme were claiming.  With sick and disabled people now forced onto the Work Programme under threat of sanctions (administered by so called charities), it is unclear whether anyone on sickness benefits has actually got a job through the scheme.

George Osborne has stated he wants to cut £10 billion further from the welfare system despite the savage cuts that in many cases are still to take effect.  Half of that figure could be saved by scrapping the Work Programme which is serving little function other than lining the pockets of the poverty pimps running the scheme with tax payers cash.

The statistics can be viewed at: http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/adhoc_analysis/2012/wp_early_entrants.pdf

Join in the National Week of Action Against Workfare – tell the charities involved in workfare what you think: http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=1298

Workfare Protesters Are Violent Criminals Claim Holland & Barrett

In a shocking twist on the workfare row, one of the largest users of unpaid labour has issued a strings of slurs against customers who chose to boycott or picket the store.

Holland & Barrett were planning to recruit up to 1000 unpaid staff on the various Government workfare schemes.  This drew storms of protest with hundreds of customers taking to twitter (@holland_barrett) threatening to boycott the store.  Well attended and entirely peaceful pickets took place outside scores of their stores around the UK, many attended and even organised by former customers.

The so called health food store remained silent on their use of workfare until this morning when they announced they were pulling out of the scheme.  So furious however are the company at having to pay their staff they decided to vent that fury on those who had attended the many pickets.

Initially Holland & Barrett claimed they were dropping workfare due to upcoming protests, claiming, in what was little more than a crude slur, that they were concerned staff and customers might be at risk.  Later in the day they went on step further, apparently telling the Guardian that staff had faced assaults at previous protests and that stock had been damaged.

The company  appear to concede that they weren’t aware of any protesters being charged, let alone prosecuted, for these criminal acts.  There have been no reports of arrests at any of the Holland & Barrett demos so far.

Then along came lying bastard Chris Grayling, the Minister for Employment,  in a suspiciously swift response to the company’s announcement.  Grayling blustered this morning that those campaigning against workfare are a “disgrace” and vowed to “stand up firmly” against protesters.

If Holland & Barrett have evidence of criminal acts against their staff perhaps they can produce a crime number with details of when the alleged incidents took place.  Alternatively the company can explain why they chose not to take any action on behalf of staff who have been assaulted.  Or perhaps they could admit that they are lying, cheating, snake oil selling vermin with as little respect for their customers as they have for their workers.

It is clear that Holland & Barrett have no more than contempt for the hundreds of customers who boycotted and picketed store – and may well have  popped in for a vegan pasty today had they not been so ruthlessly libelled.  It is also apparent that they have no regrets about plans to replace a quarter of their staff with unpaid workers.  They are likely to be back to their old exploitative ways the second they think no-one’s watching.

Holland & Barrett’s only regret is that they can’t get free labour anymore.  This alone has been enough to bring on a temper tantrum from the company who have turned on their own ethical customers.  I’d recommend they have some chamomile tea.  Bought from a local independent witch doctor.

The National Week of Action Against Workfare is going ahead as planned and begins tomorrow (Saturday 7th July) – more details at: http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=1154

Holland & Barrett Pull Out Of Workfare!

In yet another humiliating snub for Chris Grayling, major retailer Holland & Barrett have said they are pulling out of workfare schemes.

The health food chain have said the current 60 Work Experience placements will complete their provision but they will be the last unpaid workers at the company.  This announcement follows several weeks of intensive campaigning by Solidarity Federation, who joined by Boycott Workfare, have organised pickets of their stores throughout the UK.

Meanwhile hundreds of people contacted them on twitter and facebook to state their intention to boycott the company.  As recently as March, Employment Minister Chris Grayling had boasted that: ‘Holland and Barrett have committed to supporting one thousand young people over the next twelve months’ by delivering ‘placements and support’  in partnership with Jobcentre Plus.

Holland & Barrett’s decision, coming just days before the National Week of Action Against Workfare, shows just how out of touch this Government must be if they think the public will tolerate huge money grabbing corporations forcing people to work for their benefits.

Holland & Barrett are not completely out of the woods.  They will continue to employ apprentices, paid just a meagre £2.60 an hour, less than half the minimum wage.  But this announcement still represents yet another victory against forced labour and throws into disarray the Government’s plans to extend the scheme, or force long term unemployed people into six months workfare.

Holland & Barrett have attempted to blame the upcoming protests as the reason they pulled out of the scheme.  The company’s full statement on facebook said:

“At Holland & Barrett, we take our responsibilities as a retailer and employer very seriously, and any possible compromise to the safety of our staff and customers from opponents of our work experience scheme is treated with great importance.

“This factor, together with the planned introduction of a new full time, salaried apprentice scheme, means that the 60 people currently undertaking the work experience scheme will be the last to complete the eight week placement. After this time Holland & Barrett will not participate further in that scheme.”

With plenty of workfare exploiters still to choose from, the Week of Action Against Workfare is still set to go ahead.  Keep an eye on Boycott Workfare’s website or the facebook page for the latest news.

The Government is increasingly dependent on charities to provide ever more punitive workfare placements.  Some such as the British Heart Foundation (@the BHF) have boasted they use workfare in every store.  Other like @scope have claimed to no longer use mandatory work, yet the DWP have published case studies of them doing just that.  Disability Works charities, such as @mindcharity, @mencap_charity and the aforementioned @scope are even sub-contractors for the Work Programme.  On this scheme unemployed people have been sentenced to up to six months workfare, whilst  people claiming disability benefits are punished with brutal sanctions for ‘non-compliance’ with ‘mandated work activity’, such as failing to attend a training course or missing a meeting.

It is a sad and revealing state of affairs when companies like Holland & Barrett are quicker to sense the public mood and reject exploitative forced labour schemes, whilst the so called charitable sector props them up in order to make a cheap buck.

Join the Week of Action beginning tomorrow (Sat 7th July – protests planned in Central London, Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol, Birmingham, Brighton, Hastings, Hackney, Blackheath, Brixton, Islington, Edinburgh, Poole, Rhondda Valley, Wood Green and York so far – full details (which may have changed due to Holland & Barrett’s announcement), can be found via: http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=1154

Now Chris Grayling Attacks the Foundations of Democracy!

There are few ways for the people to claw back some degree of power in this sham democracy.

The right to peaceful protest and the ability to boycott companies and institutions we object to, for now, remain inside the law.  And whilst the state attempts to cover up it’s gravest secrets, we still have some right to know what those in power are actually doing via the Freedom of Information act.

But the recent actions of employment minister Chris Grayling reveal even these small freedoms are held in contempt by this toff Government.

Back in January Frank Zola made a Freedom of Information request concerning the Government’s Mandatory Work Activity (MWA) scheme.  MWA is a system of punishment for unemployed people who are deemed by Jobcentre advisors to be not trying hard enough to find work.  Claimants can be sent on a four week sentence of unpaid work, similar to a mid level Community Service punishment, or face being stripped of vital benefits.  The DWP’s own research reveals that the scheme has been a dismal and expensive failure.  Despite this, Chris Grayling this week announced plans to massively extend the scheme.

The Freedom of Information request asked the DWP for details of where people are actually being sent to undertake unpaid work.  Previously information of this type had been provided by the Department and even published on the DWP website.  When the workfare row blew up earlier in the year, these documents disappeared and the DWP began refusing to reveal details of MWA, or any other workfare providers.  This was despite David Cameron boasting at the same time that Airbus and Centre Parcs had recently joined the Work Experience scheme.  It was clear even then that the Government are only to happy to provide this type of information when it suits them.

The DWP invoked Section 43 of the Freedom of Information act saying that to reveal the information may “potentially damage the commercial interests of organisations providing work placements and inhibit or limit the ability of the Department to obtain the best services to help people make the transition into work.”

This decision appears to have been made after the DWP decided that if they told the truth about who was using workfare then people might exercise their right to peaceful protest or boycott the companies concerned.  They may even say mean things on twitter about them.

Mr Zola correctly referred the DWP to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), who are responsible for ensuring government departments remain within the law when rejecting FOI requests.  The investigation is still ongoing however a second request, to view all correspondence between the DWP and the ICO, has recently been granted.  The correspondence reveals the staggering arrogance of the DWP in this matter and proves that this attitude has come direct from the minister responsible himself, Chris Grayling.

The ICO wrote to the department confirming that they accepted the matter should be placed under investigation and asking the DWP to justify their decision.  They also pointed out that the ICO does not take into account ‘speculative arguments’ about how such information might prejudice the interests of third parties (meaning the companies profiting from forced labour).

The DWP start to wriggle furiously, asking for a 10 day extension to provide the justification for their decision.  A stark response comes from the ICO:

It’s almost as if the DWP simply rejected the original request out of hand without carrying out the proper procedures.  Despite this the ICO grants the exception.

Eventually the DWP gets round to writing back with their justification for not providing information which they had previously declared it was in the public interest for people to know.  The DWP claim that since that time they have been made aware of several ‘internet campaigns’ aimed at encouraging “people to boycott companies and organisations which have links to the Government’s work programmes”.

They also raise concerns about protests which have been held targeting companies who use workfare.  It is clear that the Department is refusing to provide this information simply because they are concerned it might upset people and they may even protest about it.  They seem particularly troubled by boycotts, revealing that we are not even to be trusted to make our own decisions about where we shop anymore.

Interestingly the DWP speak in dismissive terms about people using the term workfare to mean any programme which offers “job seekers the opportunity to gain valuable work experience” which they say includes Work Experience, MWA and the Government’s flagship Work Programme.  This is significant because Chris Grayling has previously claimed several times, including to a Parliamentary Committee, that mandatory work does not exist on the Work Programme.

This lie was exposed by DWP documents which told providers they must mandate claimants to work experience on the Work Programme.  These documents were hastily changed when the workfare story broke to cover up for Grayling’s lies.

In their submission to the Information Commissioner, the DWP claim that several companies and organisations had dropped out of the MWA scheme due to pressure from the public.  These organisations include the charities Oxfam, Shelter and Marie Curie, all of whom have issued strong statements condemning unpaid work.  The DWP seems to think that if it wasn’t for horrible people on the internet then these companies would have been only too happy to sacrifice their principles and make use of forced labour.  This only reveals the contempt that the department has for any organisation that disagrees with their current exploitative practices.

The DWP also claims that any release of information may have a ‘detrimental’ effect on job seekers, as if forced labour should automatically be assumed to be a positive thing.  Most job seekers disagree and the facts reveal MWA to be worthless in helping people to secure employment.

The DWP acknowledges that the Job Seekers themselves have a right to know exactly where they are being sent on placement which they claim: “meets the public interest in being transparent whilst mitigating the boycott activities of the campaign group which national disclosure would encourage”.  How big of them.

The DWP say it is unfortunate that a minority wish to target companies unfairly by boycotting them.  Here lies a glaring inconsistency in their argument.  If only a small minority of people will boycott companies using workfare then such a boycott is unlikely to damage the commercial interests of the organisations involved.

The DWP also claim organisations using workfare, and even the DWP themselves, may suffer ‘reputational damage’.  Note it is not the use of workfare which may cause the damage to company’s reputations, simply the public finding out about it.

The department also warn that because of various campaigning activities the objective of MWA may not be fulfilled.  It appears that the Government are refusing to tell us what they are doing in case it upsets anyone and they may be forced to change their policy.

It is chilling to imagine what would happen were this attitude to be carried over to other government departments.  Perhaps we will not even be told where the next war is taking place in case the great unwashed dare to find out and protest about it.

Finally the DWP sign off by moving the goalposts and requesting that if the ICO is not minded to accept their arguments under Section 43 of the act,then could they please try and invoke Section 36 (2) instead.

The DWP include in their submission a ream of evidence which they say proves just how horrible people have been to them since the workfare row broke out.  This includes a transcript of a piece from the Boycott Workfare website, several urls to other websites including Radical Glasgow, Indymedia and the Right to Work Campaign and two transcripts of pieces from this very blog.

The two pieces which so upset the DWP are Shame of the Third Sector: How Charities Got it Wrong on Workfare and amusingly  Chris Grayling is a Lying Bastard.

The ICO do not appear to be impressed and request that the department forward their new arguments on why exemption Section 36 (2) should apply.  They note that the Information Commissioner “cannot be expected to wait until after the conclusion of his investigation before full and complete arguments be supplied by the department”.

A Section 36 (2) exemption means that the DWP believe that releasing the information may “be Prejudicial to the Effective Conduct of Public Affairs”.

Section 36 can only be used if, in the reasonable view of a “qualified person” disclosure of the requested information would have a prejudicial effect.  The ICO unsurprisingly ask who this qualified person is.

Step forward Chris Grayling, a man who is barely qualified for his position and has never held a reasonable view in his life.

The next document released shows a letter dated 24th April in which the DWP write with recommendations to the Employment Minister concerning the use of the Section 36 (2) exemption.  This occurs after the department has attempted to invoke the exemption, which clearly reveals they hadn’t yet sought the reasonable view of a qualified person as they are required to.

The DWP argue that:

Tesco, Arcadia Group, Sainsburys, Waterstones and Boots are just some of the companies that have very publicly distanced themselves from forced labour.    Protests aimed at workfare are still taking place around the UK.  This suggests that workfare is not supported by the business community and the majority of the population.

The DWP appear to think that employers and charities who have pulled out of workfare are too stupid to make their own decisions.  Once again the gross inconsistency of their argument becomes apparent.  If so many people are concerned about the use of workfare by organisations that they may mount a boycott and affect the commercial interests of those organisations then it is clearly in the public interest to make that information known.

The last document released is a letter from Chris Grayling to the DWP in which he accepts the recommendations and authorises an exemption based on Section 36 (2).

Once again the DWP’s position appears to be that information must not be released to the public which may cause them to organise protests or choose not to shop at certain establishments.  The DWP and the minister Chris Grayling reveal they have little or no respect on the right of the public to be told information and make decisions based on what they hear.  Instead they’d rather things were covered up and hidden away in case anyone objects.  This is a gross distortion of the FOI legislation which is designed to promote transparent government.

It appears that this Government will only be transparent when telling us things it wants us to hear.  Any information which may cause public outrage is to be covered up in the public interest.

Of course when it suits them they are only too happy to tell us who is involved in Mandatory Work Activity.  A recent Press Release from the DWP contains a case study concerning someone who was sentenced to MWA at a Scope charity shop in Goole.  It seems in this instance the DWP has no concerns about a minority of people affecting the commercial interests of the Goole charity shop.

The Information Commissioner will hopefully note that the Government is quite happy to hand out this information when it suits them and reject the DWP’s calls to keep workfare exploiters hidden from view.  We have a right to know which companies and organisations are using workfare.  We have a right to protest if we don’t like it.  And we absolutely have a right not to shop at places if we have concerns about their use of forced labour.

The original FOI request can be found at: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/successful_bidders#incoming-252660

The correspondence between the DWP and the ICO is at (PDFs): www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/116559/response/288337/attach/2/R%20info%20ICO%20DWP.1.pdf

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/116559/response/288337/attach/3/R%20info%20ICO%20DWP.2.pdf

A list of providers of Mandatory Work Activity which has since been ‘disappeared’ by the DWP can still be found at: https://viewer.zoho.com/docs/ga6d2e

More Lies, Spin and Smears from Chris Grayling and the DWP

Chris Grayling is lying through his teeth again in the Daily Mail today leading to the ludicrous claim that half of unemployed people are secretly working.

This is based on the claim that 46% of people referred onto the Government’s Mandatory Work Activity scheme (MWA)  – a system of community service for unemployed people -  sign off before starting the scheme or fail to turn up and have benefits sanctioned.

MWA is used should a Jobcentre advisor decide someone isn’t trying hard enough to find work.  It consists of 4 weeks unpaid work, similar to a medium level Community Payback sentence.  Job Seekers are now being treated in the same way as those who may have committed burglary, Actual Bodily Harm, or sexual offences, the only difference being the unemployed don’t get the benefit of a trial.

Claimants are sent to work for charity shops and ‘community organisations’.  Many of these charities are household names, such as the British Heart Foundation (@thebhf), who’s charity shops are fast becoming little more than punishment centres for the unemployed.  Other charities have lied through their teeth about their involvement in forced labour.  Charity SCOPE (@scope) are adamant that not one of the volunteers in their shops are there under threat of benefit sanctions.  Yet in a recent press release on the DWP’s own website, a case study is outlined in which someone was sent on Mandatory Work Activity in a SCOPE charity shop.  Failure to attend MWA can lead to benefits being sanctioned for three months.

The brutal testing regime for sickness benefits, carried out by French IT firm Atos, has led to hundreds of thousands of sick or disabled people being forced onto Job Seekers Allowance where they now face workfare.  Many of these people have mental health conditions.  The Social Service Advisory Committee warned that this group in particular may be vulnerable to sanctions if MWA went ahead.

It is quite possible that many of those who signed off after being sent on MWA, or failed to attend the scheme, represent people who are not well enough to work full time, or were not fully aware of the consequences.  These are not people who have been working on the side, but people who have simply been forced out of the benefits system into poverty and quite possibly homelessness.

Grayling himself appears to admit that some of them signed back on when they thought the coast was clear.  This is not the behaviour of someone committing fraud.  Yet this hasn’t stopped the minister and his friends at the Daily Mail of attempting to smear almost a million unemployed people as criminals.

As ever in amongst Grayling’s slurs and spin he can’t resist an outright lie.  Grayling claims in the Mail today that:

“‘I sat through an interview with a young man in a job centre who was working for a few hours a week, below the benefit threshold, at a local nightclub,’

The benefit threshold is £5 a week.  Either Grayling doesn’t have a clue about the basics of how the benefit system actually works.  Or he is making shit up again to please the braying hounds at the Daily Mail.  Compulsive liar Grayling has moved so far from the truth it is impossible to believe anything that he, or the DWP, tell us anymore.

70,000 claimants are now to face MWA under changes announced yesterday.  It now seems certain that those who refuse to attend workfare on the Work Programme, or Work Experience schemes, will be sent on MWA instead.  When the workfare row blew up earlier in the year Grayling announced that sanctions would no longer be applied to young people who didn’t want to take part in Work Experience and face being sent to sleep under a bridge with no access to food or toilet facilities.

It is now clear that Grayling’s claims were a  deliberate attempt to mislead the business community, charities and the public alike.  Sanctions have been  snuck back into the scheme under another guise as soon as the minister thinks the public have forgotten.  If you refuse ‘voluntary’ workfare, then you will be sent on ‘mandatory’ workfare or face sanctions potentially lasting up three years.

The problem is the public haven’t forgotten.  A week of action against workfare is planned to begin on Saturday 7th July. In Liverpool Solidarity Federation have been carrying out pickets and communication blockades on a weekly basis aimed at fraudulent bastards A4e and fake ethical company Holland & Barrett who plan to use workfare to recruit up to a quarter of their staff.  Solidarity Federation will be continuing to target the company throughout the week of action.  A recent national conference aimed at ending workfare has co-ordinated groups around the UK determined to stamp out the exploitative practice of unpaid work.  Anger on the internet has swelled again with hundreds of people now threatening boycotts of workfare exploiters Argos and the British Heart Foundation.

The pressure needs to be maintained.  There is little point directing protests at the DWP or Chris Grayling who can’t even be trusted to tell us the truth about what is going on in the benefits system.  Workfare exploiters should be confronted directly.  It matters little what crazy schemes Grayling comes up with next if companies and charities realise involvement in forced labour is far from profitable.  If they exploit us, we will shut them down.

http://www.boycottworkfare.org/

The Real Face of Mandatory Work Activity – Shocking Videos Emerge

Two videos have emerged on youtube which appear to represent the reality of the Mandatory Work Activity scheme which Chris Grayling this week announced is to be extended to tens of thousands more unemployed people.

In the two part video diary, the claimant films aspects of the work he has been sent to take part in by the Welfare to Work company Working Links, who are currently mired in fraud investigations.  The work involves tree brashing, a laborious task which involves stripping lower branches from trees in heavy forest growth.

Astonishingly, according to the video, the person concerned was provided with no protective clothing or equipment and was even required to provide his own saw.  He was also left to work alone and completely unsupervised, despite the potentially dangerous nature of the work.  It also highlights the fact that his transport costs to the job had not been met in full and that Working Links suggested he take a 90 minute bus journey followed by a five mile walk to his place of work each day in order to keep his costs down.

On Mandatory Work Activity (MWA) claimants are sent to work for 30 hours on a range of ‘community’ projects for no pay for four weeks at a time.  The scheme is used as Community Service for unemployed people deemed not trying hard enough to find work by Jobcentre advisors.  Failure to attend MWA leads to punitive benefit sanctions which leave people in dire poverty and facing possible homelessness.

There is nothing in the videos which suggests they may be inauthentic, but even if they were to be an elaborate hoax, they represent far from the worst case scenario that some benefit claimants now face.

All of the allegations made in the videos are perfectly consistent with the rules of Mandatory Work Activity.  In some cases the scheme could be even more punitive.  The person who made the videos appears relatively young, healthy and able-bodied.  Due to the brutal assessment regime for sickness benefits,  huge numbers of sick and disabled people have now been bullied onto Jobseekers Allowance.  Jobcentre staff, most of whom have no training in sickness or disability issues, can now send sick and disabled people on this scheme where they too could be sent to work in the forests of Scotland,  carrying out hard manual labour for the pittance of £67.50 a week.

As noted on the Black Triangle Campaign’s website this week, the Social Security Advisory Committee warned that people with  ‘invisible’ disabilities such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, autistic spectrum disorders or those with mental health conditions are particularly vulnerable to being referred to Mandatory Work due to the nature of their conditions.

Previous workfare schemes have usually come with a small top up to benefit payments to help meet the costs of being in full time, unpaid employment.  These payments have all been scrapped by the current Government.  As the videos point out, substantial costs can be incurred when carrying out physical work, including the simple fact you need to eat more and take more baths.

This is the stark reality of this Government’s welfare reforms.  People with serious and life threatening conditions can now be sent to carry out hard physical labour whilst they are barely given enough to pay for food.  If the video is to be believed, and there’s no reason not to, they may not even be granted safety clothing, equipment or adequate supervision.

Tragically an increasing number of people have taken their own lives due to the brutality of the current welfare reforms.  With Mandatory Work about to be increased on an industrial scale, it is only a matter of time before there are even more deaths due to unscrupulous employers – many of whom are charities – forcing people into unsafe and unhealthy working conditions under threat of benefit sanctions.

The first of the two videos is below, the second can be watched on youtube.

The maker of the video diary recommends those facing unpaid labour find out their rights by visiting the Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty website or http://www.consent.me.uk/