The New Deal Scandal: Flexible New Deal blog (http://www.newdealscandal.co.uk/flexiblenewdeal/) is a part of the Flexible New Deal Scandal Network.

Actively Seeking Employment: Social Security Commissioner Decision

Case reference: CJSA 1814 2007

DECISION OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY COMMISSIONER

1.  I allow the appeal. For the reasons below, the decision of the tribunal is wrong in law. It is set aside. With the agreement of both parties, I substitute for that decision the decision that the tribunal should have taken. This is:

Appeal allowed. The decision of the Secretary of State of 9 11 2006, superseding the decision of 28 3 2006, is set aside. The appellant was actively seeking work in the period 31 10 2006 to 6 11 2006. That is therefore not a ground for superseding the decision awarding jobseeker’s allowance to the appellant during that period.

For the avoidance of doubt, this means that there is no break in the appellant’s entitlement to jobseeker’s allowance for the period 31 10 2006 to 6 11 2006. He does not therefore need to make a new claim for that or the following period. He is also entitled to any relevant credited earnings for contribution purposes for the period.

2.  The claimant and appellant (C) is appealing with my permission against the decision of the Worcester tribunal on 5 02 2007 under reference 055 06 00550.
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Flexible New Deal Discussion

New Deal Scandal has launched a new website called Flexible New Deal Discussion!

Up until now the deal has been I wrote the blog article and you give feedback (whether positive or negative) – since then I have expanded the site so very little by allowing you to rate the article and each individual comment. The maximum I can do with wordpress (thats said wordpress is my favourite blog platform).

I have decided it is a good idea to release a forum (feedback dot flexible new deal dot me dot uk) so you can now create a topic and discuss various topics including New Deal, Flexible New Deal, Welfare Reform and even Tell the world what you would do instead of flexible new deal if you was in charge!

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Is Jobseekers Allowance actually enough to live on?

We have previously highlighted the Jobseekers Allowance Scandal of how the weekly rate doesn’t include any money to seek employment and what the £64.30 weekly payment is intended to cover.

We will now highlight “How generous is Jobseekers Allowance?” and further criticise the amount of JSA.

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Government keeps Ipswich Detention Centre open

£64.30 weekly jobseekers allowance broken into costs

New Deal Scandal can today reveal the official DWP response of how the £64.50 (over 25) Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) is calculated, after the Department for Work and Pensions responded to a Freedom of Information Act request. Read more on New Deal Scandal »

Benefit Busters: Episode 2 Preview

Benefit Busters is on again tomorrow at 9pm. The first episode of Series 1 of Benefit Busters spreaded a lot of anger of Princess Emma of Sheffield in her mansion and A4e: the largest New Deal Provider.

New Deal Scandal will review the preview clips of Episode 2 of Benefit Busters – this show could really damage the reputation of A4e.  The clips are “Easier on the dole” and “Job ready“.  Read more on New Deal Scandal »

Benefit Busters Episode 1

Interesting links on A4e Doncaster featured Benefit Busters Series 1, Episode 1 that was shown on Channel 4 last Thursday night.  Read more on New Deal Scandal »

A4e Benefit Busters Single Mums Review

So it has been a hot topic in the recent week…. Benefit Busters at A4e Doncaster.

I have already expressed disappointment regarding the low outcome by A4e the largest welfare provider in the UK that also has business interests overseas.

Since the Benefit Busters show, I have been reviewing feedback across the internet. The comments are shocking! Read more on New Deal Scandal »

A4e Benefit Busters: why A4e isn't the answer for welfare

As we all might be aware that the Channel 4 Benefit Busters show was designed for publicity for A4e rather than a fair insight in to the benefit system.

Thursday’s (20th August) show which featured the training provider Action for Employment (otherwise known as A4e) and their star tutor/trainer/sales person/staff member Hayley Taylor (which I hear has since been sacked) pursuing ten single mums in to making the transition of going back to work, highlighted a major flaw.

Yes the PR backfired. Not solely due to opinion on the show which i will report later in a separate blog article but rather by their lack of success as the UK market-leader of providing Government welfare schemes. Read more on New Deal Scandal »

Information Commissioner: Jobcentre Plus sending sensitive information to Royal Mail is OK

New Deal Scandal have heard a lot of concern in the ways that the Department for Work and Pensions processes our private and confidential information including thousands of DWP staff not being aware of or receiving training on proper information handling.

The Information Commissioner has ruled that there is no wrong doing in the practices of the DWP. Read more on New Deal Scandal »

No prosecutions for New Deal Fraud

New Deal Scandal can reveal that the Department for Work and Pensions has no intention for making any prosecutions for prime contractors deliberately defrauding the system. The Department for Work and Pensions currently has no plans of stopping Flexible New Deal contracts being awarded to prime contractors who have previously defrauded the system on numerous occassions for the New Deal contracts. Read more on New Deal Scandal »

New Deal Scandal & Welfare Reform: network snippet

Just a brief overall of recent content on ”New Deal Scandal & Welfare Reform” blog. This might be easier to some then using WordPress pages as some sticky posts make normal ones difficult to see sometimes. Read more on New Deal Scandal »

New Deal Scandal: A4e 1 – Bloggers 1

New Deal Scandal is back!

Against the will of Action for Employment (a4e) we are not going away.

A4e may have successfully taken down watchingA4e as Webs (previously freewebs) bowed to the pressure but Wordpress had the sense and courtesy to consult with me first before taking removal action. I proved to Wordpress that this is nothing more than internet censorship as my source for that blog post was from the Government and is available to anyone who wishes to search the company register.

This makes it 1-1 on the score between A4e and Blogger!

This meant a little bit of downtime – well no new posts anyway and one being hidden (private) – but now we are back, and now have some more content on A4e that I am sure you will find interesting. Read more on New Deal Scandal »

26% of DWP employees do not know if they have qualifications

The DWP Survey 2009, states that 26% of employees taking the survey (71% of the total workforce) answered “not sure” to the following question: “Do you possess a Level 2 qualification (NVQ, BTEC, 5 GCSEs Grade A-C, or equivalent) or above?“. That is 18,982 employees not sure about their own qualifications. Read more on New Deal Scandal »

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1 in 3 DWP employees don't want to stay another year

The latest statistics show that 67% of DWP employees would like to still work at DWP in 12 months time – 33% said they didn’t wish to. 48,914 would still like to work for the Department for Work and Pensions in a years time while 24,092 stated that they would not like to. Read more on New Deal Scandal »

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Do you trust the Department for Work and Pensions with your data?

If the answer is yes, then you should think again!

Details published from DWP themselves from the DWP Survey 2009 – a survey of 73,006 people (71%) – a response of under 3 in 4 members of staff, show some worrying statistics. Is your data safe? Read more on New Deal Scandal »

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New Deal Scandal & Welfare Reform: network snippet

Just a brief overall of recent content on ”New Deal Scandal & Welfare Reform” and “Ipswich Unemployed Action” blogs.  This might be easier to some then using Wordpress pages as some sticky posts make normal ones difficult to see sometimes.  Read more on New Deal Scandal »

£1.2 billion DWP Fraud: DWP Underspend, Claimants struggle

As a Jobseekers Allowance claimant myself (when my claim hasn’t been stopped or suspended for trivial reasons such as not attending an interview they never told me about) I am not surprised that the National Audit Office (NAO) has reported a £1.2 billion under spend last year.

To stick this figure into prospective (remember it is the DWP as a whole not just JSA) if the figure comprised totally of Jobseekers Allowance at the higher rate of £60 per week, it makes 10 million payments of 20 million benefit weeks not being paid out, or 384,615 claimants a year receiving no Jobseekers Allowance at all even though entitled to do so by law.

In fact this raises a huge question about DWP, Jobcentre Plus; and their repeatedly unlawful tactics and techniques to take ones legal entitlement away, which I will explain later in to the article. As the Jobseekers Act 1995 (as amended) makes it your legal entitlement and the Jobcentre is doing the best to avoid paying that money out to you this comes under fraud in my definition and as such this £1.2 billion under spend will be categorised as a £1.2 billion fraud.

This is on top of the £750 million under spending on the Tax Credits system – resulting in 1.2 million claims not being made. We recently reported about the Jobseekers Allowance Scandal and the quarter of a billion pounds a year Housing Allowance cut. Read more on New Deal Scandal »

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What the DWP doesn't want you to know…

205 laptops lost or stolen full of confidential information.

Apparently the figures are as follows

2004 – 75 Laptops
2005 – 46 Laptops
2006 – 28 Laptops
2007 – 15 Laptops
2008 – 41 Laptops

£266,000 spent on entertainment.

2003-04 £79,000 (this particular figure is apparently just a estimate)
2004-05 £28,000
2005-06 £43,000
2006-07 £106,000
2007-08 £10,000

Maybe its all the christmas parties, who knows…

Thanks to the volunteers at the United Kingdom Benefits Information eXchange forums (UKBIX). A very recommended source by New Deal Scandal.

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Jobcentre Plus: security and assaults

You may have heard about assaults on Jobcentre Plus staff in the news, however, these figures are largely distorted. They refer to Incident Cases and not solely due to physical assault – which we will explain later.

Six months ago Jobcentre Plus boasted over 1,600 security guards costing the taxpayer over £40 million a year.  I am sure this amount will be on the increase as new claimants are increasing.

This article will focus on: a) are all these security guards necessary?  and  b) how many actual assaults were there?

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a4e New Deal: Finance Director resigned

We can reveal that on the 20th April 2009, Mr Neil Watson the Finance Director for Action 4 Employment resigned from a4e Ltd as a director. Read more on New Deal Scandal »

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Secretary of State for Work and Pensions James Purnell MP

Well, not any more…

Secretary of State

(former) Secretary of State: James Purnell MP

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DWP Corruption? The Campaign Against DWP Corruption

The Independent Watchdog for the Department for Work & Pensions

We hope you’ll find us a useful resource in helping to recognize, combat and raise awareness of abuse of power involving the UK government’s largest department, a department dependent upon a sea of civil and judicial servants, we repeatedly find not doing their job properly.

In March 2007 the then Department for Constitutional Affairs Minister Harriet Harman MP spoke on BBC1’s Question Time of “transparency” and “adherence to law”.

It is with ongoing sadness, we find her former department failing in the latter, this campaign providing the transparency parliament craves.

On the basis of a detailed body of written evidence demonstrating wrongdoing, we seek; abolition of the Office of Social Security Commissioners (OSSC) and the Parliamentary Ombudsman (PO), as they stand.

We likewise campaign for lay involvement in social security appeals, whether by jury or panels, to combat abuse of power in these private judicial courts which we find breaking the law, contrary to their function, as Parliament requires; to uphold it.

We also want to see change in the complaints procedure, again by way of truly independent adjudication for staff misconduct and disciplinary action for all demonstrated instances of mischief or illegal activity within the DWP and its associated bodies including the Child Support Agency (CSA), now re-branded the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC).

We aim likewise to inform, how public servants, salaried by the British taxpayer, can, for their own reasons, bully and defraud the weakest members in society , while those judicial servants in place to oversee them, not only condone such, join in, cover up and whitewash their colleagues criminal behaviour, the DWP remaining a bastion of the archaic and corrupt practice of closing ranks; a mentality which invites the campaign.

DWP CORRUPTION – YOU AND “THE LAW”

PRIVATE AGENCIES

As a DWP watchdog, we have found the DWP’s Office for Constitutional Affairs (now re-branded the Ministry of Justice) misusing taxpayer’s money to employ private legal firms to knowingly and successfully plead for corrupt and illegal decisions, from corrupt Social Security Commissioners .

USE OF GAGGING ORDERS

We have likewise found corrupt DWP management misusing taxpayer’s money, to hire private legal agencies to threaten and thereby gag private citizens attempting to pursue legitimate redress of grievance within the DWP’s internal grievance procedure long before the internal procedure is exhausted!

HUMAN RIGHTS ACT 1998

With regard to the Human Rights Act 1998, adopted by the U.K. we observe breaches of this legislation by the DWP standard, routine practice, the Appeal Tribunal Service and the OSSC invariably tolerating or paying only lip service to such, the DWP having little or no interest in their customer’s legal rights, a situation most benefit claimants know little about.

The so called “new system of protection” namely the European court, requires “domestic remedies” to have been “exhausted”. Although seemingly well intended, the Act is itself vague, slow and beyond the reach of welfare claimants to pursue, such requiring the employment of an advocate for opinion from the court of appeal and beyond, something generally not covered we understand, by legal aid, not forgetting from past cases it could take over sixteen years to get there as in the Deumeland case.

That protection the public could do without and having sought such, never finding a remedy anyway:

Klaus Deumeland was fined DM800 for bringing “vexatious” proceedings his complaint being that the proceedings were extraordinary protracted .

Make up your own mind whether sixteen years is a reasonable period to obtain (or in his case not obtain) the said protection but otherwise keep the legal profession in work at the expense of both the public purse and the victim.

More DWP Jobcentre Plus corruption on www.ukcorruptiontoday.com