A4E cost Declan a major opportunity with the Terrence Higgins Trust

With the exception of one blog on the bringing down of our website, all my blogs this month have been about Action for Employment (A4E), and this trend seems set to continue. Yesterday Declan came home to a letter from A4E Camden informing him that he is to take part in a "work boost", which is basically a mandatory four-week period of unpaid full-time work. So four days before we are due to be interviewed for voluntary work by the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), the leading HIV & AIDS charity in the UK and the largest in Europe, Declan is forced to withdraw his name.

This is quite startling because Declan and his employment advisor, A4E Camden manager David Lawson, signed a My Journey Plan on 19 January which states that Declan would complete his work boost in April upon completion of an IT course he is currently taking at WMC, a premier adult education college. Declan volunteering for the THT was a huge opportunity to make sure his work boost would take place in a premier non-profit organisation, thereby increasing his chances of securing sustainable employment.



An A4E booklet states: "Together with your Employment Coach, you'll decide when and where the best place to take your Work Boost will be" (emphasis mine), but this doesn't seem to apply to Declan. In fact, we have yet to come across anything A4E states that does apply to him (in the previous blog I list five breaches of contract since 29 September, which include the tampering and altering of documents both Declan and I have signed; this blog also contains a video of Declan taking on A4E outside our a branch of theirs that had him escorted from the building by the police the week previous).

This letter from Lawson (archived here) also announces that Lawson himself is no longer Declan's employment advisor, but Placement Advisor Lola Worth, the very woman I wrote about in the previous blog for insisting, without knowing anything about Declan's CV or our website (or so she says), that Declan do his work boost in a supermarket or a warehouse (the only two options she put on the table). A4E claim in their website that jobs are "carefully" matched to the "skills and abilities" of their customers!

Anyway, Declan has also informed the THT that I too have to withdraw my name. Clearly A4E will likely put me in a work boost when it pleases them, so I might as well do it now and volunteer for the THT after my mandatory four weeks are done.

A4E: Fifth breach of contract

So much for my previous blog A4E: Letter to the Chairman, Emma Harrison CBE! Action for Employment (A4E) explains that they support their customers by "Working with you to review where you are now, find out your goals and aspirations and what type of job you are looking for". But that is not so, according to Lola Worth, A4E Camden Placement Advisor, who, without even having seen Declan's CV or our website (or so she says), unceremoniously provided him yesterday with his fifth breach of contract against A4E since 29 September 2010.

These are the five breaches of contract on Declan's joint claim for Jobseeker’s Allowance, with Ms Worth coming in at number 5 (each breach of contract was brought to the immediate attention of Harrison):

(1) the refusal to assist me in my search for employment;
(2) the refusal to issue me a Journey Plan;
(3) the tampering and altering of the Journey Plan I signed on 13 September 2010;
(4) the tampering and altering of the Journey Plan Declan signed on 20 October 2010;
(5) the refusal to assist Declan with relevant “work boosts”.

Declan just dispatched this (umpteenth) email/letter to Harrison, in which he lists all five breaches:

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And this is Declan taking on A4E on 3 September outside of a branch of theirs in London that had him escorted from the building by the police the week previous (the letter from the Queen that Declan refers to in this video is archived here):



This dispute is currently before Mr Justice Sycamore of the High Court (see blog of 3 December 2010 By Order of Mr Justice Sycamore Declan resubmits his claim for judicial review). But that seems to be cutting no ice with A4E! Perhaps a small claim in the small claims court will bear better fruit.

A4E: Letter to the Chairman, Emma Harrison CBE

Action for Employment (A4E) is a private company that, as the interviewer in the video above points out, has received £300 million of Government training contracts and controls 25% of the long-term unemployment budget for the Department for Work and Pensions. My A4E employment officer, Greg Janiszek, has not only created a four-page track record under my name, and behind my back, which is slanderous and inaccurate, but has tampered and altered what I signed on 13 September 2010, or at the very least tampered and altered what he asked me to sign that day. Today Declan wrote to the founder and Chairman of A4E, Emma Harrison CBE, stating: "I believe that the tampering and altering of documents that my wife has or is going to sign constitutes a serious offence and demand that this situation be rectified":

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And it's not just me. Last Friday Declan heard from the executive director of this company, who says he'll get back to us after he has looked into the tampering and altering of documents Declan has signed (see blog of 4 February A4E: Fourth breach of contract). Declan is also waiting to hear from Mr Justice Sycamore of the High Court (see blog of 3 December 2010 By Order of Mr Justice Sycamore Declan resubmits his claim for judicial review). We have actually been writing to Harrison since last August, week in, week out, about one thing after another. Little did we know when we started up with this company in July that we would be dealing with so much skulduggery.


Secret Millionaire Emma Harrison goes to Dagenham, one of Britain's poorest areas and home to Europe's largest council estate. A steel worker's daughter, 43 year old Harrison is Britain's richest female entrepreneur.

Website brought down as we are about to publish our first book excerpt from a Nobel Prize winner

The illegal surveillance of our activities online hasn’t ceased one bit, despite Declan’s most recent letter just a couple of weeks ago to our MP, Lynne Featherstone, a minister in the Home Office, regarding the on-going interception and manipulation of our email and Facebook’s selection of our IP addresses for special treatment (see blog of 27 January Facebook: Letter to our MP). This time it’s pretty outrageous: Declan was just about to publish our first exclusive book excerpt from a Nobel Prize winner when the MonChurch website was brought down (no kidding). Wordpress says there is no contact with the database and suggests that I check if Siteground’s database server is down, but Siteground is reporting that everything is OK.

Wordpress’s other suggestion is that the username and password in my wp-config.php file is incorrect, which can only mean that somebody has accessed our Wordpress file and changed both details. Yep, that easy! No doubt if somebody did that to a government department or agency, they would be put away for a few years – too bad it doesn’t work both ways. I'm curious to know what kind of warrant is necessary for this sort of assault on basic civil liberties, especially when we are clearly providing an important public service ... Perhaps Minister Featherstone will tell us none!

Declan’s work in Wordpress (Click to enlarge)

Wordpress’ suggestion (Click to enlarge)

Siteground confirming everything is OK (Click to enlarge)

A4E: Fourth breach of contract

Action for Employment (A4E) is a private company that has received £300 million of Government training contracts and controls 25% of the long-term unemployment budget for the Department for Work and Pensions. Yesterday Declan wrote to its founder and Chairman, Emma Harrison CBE, stating: "I believe that the tampering and altering of documents that I have signed constitutes a serious offence and demand that this situation be rectified." Well, today he's heard from the executive director of the company, who says he'll look into it:

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Great! When this director is done, he can also look into A4E's tampering and altering of documents I have signed. In my case, it is a lot more serious than in Declan's. My A4E employment officer, Greg Janiszek, has not only created a four-page track record under my name, and behind my back, which is slanderous and inaccurate, but he has tampered and altered what I signed on 13 September 2010, or at the very least tampered and altered what he asked me to sign that day (see blog of 21 January A4E: Third breach of contract and very serious misconduct). This is Declan taking on A4E last September outside of a branch of theirs in London that had him escorted from the building by the police the week previous (the letter from the Queen that Declan refers to in this video is archived here):



This dispute is currently before Mr Justice Sycamore of the High Court (see blog of 3 December 2010 By Order of Mr Justice Sycamore Declan resubmits his claim for judicial review). Declan also has A4E lined up for the Small Claims Court - in our case, the Central London County Court.