A leaked internal A4e document has revealed evidence of “systemic fraud” at the company, BBC Newsnight’s Paul Mason revealed tonight.
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A leaked internal A4e document has revealed evidence of “systemic fraud” at the company. The document, obtained by the BBC, shows A4e staff “claiming for putting people into jobs which did not exist, jobs which did not qualify for payment and fabricating paperwork”.
Margaret Hodge MP, chair of the House of Commons public accounts committee, said of the audit:
“This appears to be devastating evidence of systemic fraud within A4e. Either A4e failed to act or to inform DWP, or they did inform DWP and the department failed to investigate properly. Whichever, it is completely unacceptable. Once again, I am urging the department to suspend all its contracts with A4e immediately.”
The document was obtained by BBC Newsnight’s Paul Mason, who will report fully the latest developments on tonight’s programme; earlier this evening, he said:
“We’ve obtained a draft internal audit report which suggests widespread potential fraud and irregular activity, activity among, across numerous offices, and, crucially, the report warns of quotes “systematic failure to mitigate risk in relation to fraud and irregularity”. It further warns that management’s knowledge of whether its controls against fraud were working were quotes “minimal”…
“The report surveyed just the work of the top 20 recruiters so these are people highly successful in placing unemployed people in jobs and therefore earning money for A4e.
“Now, the report said eight per cent of the claims surveyed were either potentially fraudulent or irregular, a further nine per cent were risky, 14 were uncheckable, often because the employer could not be contacted or indeed found, and as a result, only 70 per cent of all the claims could be verified.”
Watch his interview on BBC News 24:
Regular readers will recall that, earlier this month, A4e tried to prevent Left Foot Forward from publishing an internal document (pdf) that appeared to indicate poor performance on behalf of the scandal-hit welfare-to work company.
We reported that the document (pdf) showed:
…the job entry rate, i.e. the proportion of individuals A4e is responsible for at some level, manages to find a job for, is 8.4 per cent overall and 9.7 per cent if ‘specialists’ – those partners dealing with difficult cases – are excluded.
Meanwhile, the percentage of those who secure a job managing to hold on to that job for 26 weeks, appears to be denoted by the Outcome/Potential Outcome collumn, which has a total of 1.9%, including and excluding difficult cases. If this is the right reading of the table, then it represents a dramatic undershooting of the Department for Work and Pensions’ own targets.
As can be seen from this National Audit Office report (pdf) published in January 2012, the DWP expects 36 per cent of those referred to companies such as A4e to be secured a job for at least 26 weeks (page 4), and 28 per cent of those not on the Work programme to reach this milestone on their own (page 22).
The latest revelations from the BBC show A4e not just failing, abjectly, to hit their targets, but fraud on a massive scale: fully 30 per cent of their claims are unverifiable.
• The document A4E doesn’t want you to see 5 Mar 2012
• A4e: Corruption, fraud and the £200m failure to help the unemployed 2 Mar 2012
• A4e’s fall from grace has been in the pipeline for two years 2 Mar 2012
A4e may have threatened us that they “won’t hesitate to take the strongest legal action should you publish this data or make any of the inferences set out”, but something tells us they, in common with all bullies, didn’t quite have the cojones to take on someone bigger than them and menace the much mightier BBC…
44 Responses to “New report reveals “devastating evidence of systemic fraud within A4e””
Blarg1987
By that logic, then the smaller the public sector, the less resources the expertease they would have to audit private sector performance of goverment contracts and so higher amounts of fraud and abiuse of tax payers money :s.
I accept the public sector is not perfect but the idea of service like Southern Cross, A4E, pip implant fiasco with private clinics, being better is deeply worrying.
Anonymous
Well it takes two.
If I ask you for a million and you give it to me, who is the idiot?
Me for asking or you for giving it out without checks.
What it shows is that the Public sector cannot be trusted with tax payers money, because its spends it on things like A4E.
Anyway, you’re going to get your high taxes, and the tories are going to get their small government. The debts are so large, there is no way back.
Anonymous
And you don’t think 7,000 bn of government debt even more worrying than some bimbos with fake boobs?
What about the 20,000 deaths in the NHS, caused by the NHS? Or is it that the public sector are immune from criticism and paying compensation to their victims.
Anonymous
Ah right, reconstruction surgery makes people “bimbos” now. Thanks for the usual torrent of prejudice.
And funny, it’s almost like you want the American system, which kills a lot more AND lets many of the 99% die from not being treated. Oh right, you do.
Anonymous
Nope, I think they should be treated. We need a health service with universal coverage.
What we also need is that the insurance companies who insured the surgeons to pay out for the boob jobs.
We also need the NHS to pay compensation to the relatives of those killed by its mistakes. Something it avoids, studiously. 20,000 a year, killed by the NHS.
It’s same, boob jobs or killed, those responsible should be made to pay, irrespective of who they work for.
That’s the difference between you and me. You think your mates shouldn’t be done for their errors. I think all should be done, and the victims compensated.