Welfare to work 'fraud scandal'

The welfare to work firm owned by David Cameron’s former families’ tsar is involved in a “multi-billion-pound scandal” in which public money has been systematically misused, a whistleblower has said.

Today’s headlines in the Daily Telegraph!

When are we going to see that these thieves or alleged thieves are trailed through the Courts as has happened to numerous single mothers earning a couple of quid in her local Chip Shop?

Emma Harrison quit her executive role at the company in February after the launch of a police inquiry into some of its work Photo: Andrew Crowley

If you are friends with a politician you are immune from the levels of probity that governs society in general?  From Town Halls to Westminster the evidence is overwhelming that it is.

In the report it states:- “An auditor with 30 years’ experience, Mr Hutchinson’s statement discloses that despite his discovery of an “ever-increasing volume of frauds”, with two or three new allegations arising on some days, the company failed to act. It cultivated a culture that discouraged employees from revealing improper practices, the document states.

“I encountered unethical behaviour or wrongdoing that fell way below standards that should be expected of organisations funded by significant sums from the public purse,” he wrote.

The repeated incidents of malpractice in the sector have led to a “multi-billion pound scandal”, he claimed in his statement. In his evidence, Mr Hutchinson, who worked at A4e from October 2010 until May last year, alleges:

• A bonus scheme for employers “drove inappropriate behaviour” by staff willing to commit fraud.

• Staff acted in the belief that if their irregularity was discovered, they could resign in the knowledge no further action would be taken.

• Two years on from a 2009 audit report warning fraud was not confined to one part of the country, fraud was still “systemic”.