New Deal: The TRUTH Exposed!

New Deal, courses to “help” the unemployed get back in to employment: overcrowded rooms, under resourced facilities, full time job search, zero rights and no independent regulation, forced short term employment just for providers to get job bonuses,  providers under staffed and using volunteers, no training or learning opportunities, identities stolen by providers in order to fraudulently gain Job Outcome bonuses, depression and boredom for participants,  decreasing the availability for the unemployed to seek jobs and apply for them,  providers not even having planning permission to provide courses,  work placements in charity shops sorting through used clothes all day,  dismissals for trivial reasons resulting in loss of benefits and sanctions imposed … the list goes on.

So why is the New Deal not helping people? We have an Government document which describes the main reasons for the New Deal – and this document isn’t leaked – readily available just under publicised.

Why the New Deal?

The reasons for the New Deal are to:

• Reduce Benefit Fraud – If Jobseekers aren’t available in the week for work they aren’t able to defraud the system
• Reduce Crime – If Jobseekers are off the streets then crime is eradicated
• Reduce NEET – Jobseekers are classified as “in training” while on New Deal courses
• Increase Sanctions – In just 3 months in September 2000 there were 4,519 imposed sanctions
• Support the temporary job market – All the money is in temporary job recruitment agencies…

Ironically…

By contracting out the New Deal scheme, it has the opposite effect to the above to New Deal providers:

• Increase FraudNew Deal prime contractors have been defrauding the system since it began, the techniques include:exiting: Dismissing a participant to ease overcrowding or because they are almost exceeding their allowed absences (providers get paid for the full 13 weeks unless the participants absence exceeds the permitted allowance) specifying lies to enforce a dismissal.
  leeching: Forcing a participant to enter an agreement allowing the provider to contact future employers to enable them to claim job outcome bonuses even if the participant secured the job after the course
  penciling: Filling in paperwork with a pencil, getting the participant to sign, then changing the content to anything other than agreed.
  pre-signing: Forcing the participant to sign incomplete paperwork or obtaining an signature specimen for intention of taking advantage of the below “windowing” technique.
  windowing: Forging signatures using natural light from a window or using artificial sources such as a overhead projector or light box.New Deal Scandal website believes the widespread fraud in the New Deal system amounts to multiple billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money lost to greed from private companies.

  This amounts to more than the estimated £800 million benefit fraud cost prior to the crackdown in benefit fraud claimants. New Deal providers are virtually not inspected or stuck under scrutiny – most fraud cases of New Deal are started with a tip off, there were 1,869 fraud tip offs in the first 5 years of New Deal – where then the DWP looks at paperwork for irregularities and any sign of possible fraud.

  278 full fraud investigations were started in a 3 year time period during the first 5 years of New Deal – no one or any company has yet been prosecuted for fraud in the welfare-to-work system, and the Government only claims just over £1 million was lost in the fraud – which the providers were likely made to pay back.

  The case with benefit fraud is completely different, individuals fill the full weight of the law on them, rather recently an a4e employee was jailed for working while receiving benefits.
  
  

• Increase CrimeFraud is a crime – all the providers seem to be involved in one shape or form.
• Increase NEETWhen participants are exited they are no longer classified as “in training”.