Thursday, September 16, 2010

Jobcentre confirms A4E broke the law

Action for Employment (A4E) is a private sector company that has £300 million of Government training contracts and controls 25% of the long-term unemployment budget for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). In the previous blog, I published Declan's appeal against A4E for unfair treatment. Well, we now have a letter to hand from the manager of our jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus, confirming that A4E broke the law. 

On 16 August, Declan requested both verbally and in writing that A4E refer a proposed jobseeker's agreement of theirs to the Decision Maker (the Secretary of State) under section 9(6) of the Jobseekers Act 1995. This section states quite clearly that "The employment officer may, and if asked to do so by the claimant shall forthwith, refer a proposed jobseeker’s agreement to the Secretary of State". According to the Jobcentre, this referral was never made by A4E:



In fact, A4E's flouting of the law took place right under the nose of this manager (see blog of 9 September Highgate Jobcentre Plus doesn't disappoint), as well as A4E chairman and owner, Emma Harrison CBE. Declan has also been writing to new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith (see blog of 8 September Letter to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions). Of course, it was the DWP that forced us to live rough on the streets of London for more than 2 1/2 years because Declan did not "sign on" TWO DAYS BEFORE he was due to do so on 29 September 2006 (see blog of 21 June Department for Work and Pensions double breaches the Data Protection Act: Letter to the Information Commissioner). This letter also arrived from the Jobcentre in yesterday's post (you wouldn't know what they have cooking):


By the way, in the video contained in the blog of 3 September Declan's case against A4E on YouTube video I explain that we came to England from Dublin in 2003 and for two years attempted to start a network of those abused by church with our own money and how the opposition we encountered was so great that we had no choice but to go on benefits in 2005. Oh, and if you want to know what kind of opposition we encountered, the blog of 11 September City of London Police in the spotlight contains some photos of our flooded kitchen and bathroom in August 2004. Talking about freedom of expression, check this one-minute clip for a British Catholic priest saying, with an straight face, "Thank goodness we live in a country where we can protest freely. And I think it's important that people can do that. And it's important for the church to be listening to people's concerns and issues. I think that is very important."