A4E asks Declan to sign for an unrevealed 'work boost'

Action for Employment (A4E) is a private company founded and chaired by Emma Harrison CBE. As the interviewer in the video above points out, A4E has received £300 million of Government training contracts and controls 25% of the long-term unemployment budget for the Department for Work and Pensions. Declan's A4E's employment officer is Lola Olowu-Worth. In my blog of 9 April A4E: David Blunkett MP replies, I wrote that Olowu-Worth is exceptionally abusive, and described by Declan as singularly the most abusive person he has ever come across in an office (a "pseudo-bully").

Well, yesterday Olowu-Worth surpassed even herself. Not only did she breach contract five times in less than twenty minutes, but when Declan informed her that she was engaging in a criminal act by falsely reporting his views in his "Journey Plan", she responded that she knew the name of a criminal lawyer if he thought it would help. Then she wanted Declan to sign the document, thereby agreeing to start an unrevealed 'work boost' in a week! Outraged, Declan wrote this letter yesterday to our MP, Lynne Featherstone, who also happens to be a minister of the Home Office:

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Olowu-Worth hasn't in fact given Declan one week to find his own 'work boost' (30 hours of unpaid work for four weeks), but three days: today is a holiday for the royal wedding and Monday a Bank Holiday. Indeed she has surpassed even herself!


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.

The People's Supermarket finally let us go!

Kate Bull, co-founder of The People's Supermarket

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. Today was the last day of a one-month A4E 'work placement' - 16 hours a week of unpaid work - for Declan and me at The People's Supermarket (TPS). We couldn't wait for the month to end, and we learnt absolutely nothing, apart from getting to know the various bus routes to and from Westminster Reference Library because we were given no access to computers at TPS. Neither TPS nor A4E reimbursed our travel expenses for the month, and we even had to use our own printer. Despite that the supermarket cooks ready meals (co-founder Arthur Potts Dawson is a celebrity chef), I wouldn't be able to comment on its tastiness because we were never offered any food.

We were supposed to be involved in a project delivering volunteer opportunities to clients of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture (MF), but TPS had other plans. I wasn't there a few hours when I was told to put on a yellow t-shirt and come to the shop floor as soon as I had five minutes of free time; she even told me to "shut up" when I protested. We also have an email from a member of staff telling us that we should put in time on the shop floor so we would be able to empathize with clients of MF (see the email I wrote to TPS near the end of this 'work placement' in the blog of 23 April 'Work Boost' at The People's Supermarket? I don't think so!). The agenda to have us working on the shop floor was so obvious that for the first two weeks I had to sit at the end of a couch in the members' common area while I worked on creating a volunteer leaflet for TPS. Frankly, it was some achievement that for the entire month we managed to stay off the shop floor.

A4E are under tremendous pressure to ensure that at the very least they send Declan back to our jobcentre with any sort of work experience on the shop floor of TPS so that Highgate Jobcentre Plus can then run a number on his jobseeker's agreement: a job in a supermarket such as Tesco, Sainsbury's or Morrisons would be just the ticket to not only have us out of our home and ready to be fired at the drop of a hat, but more significantly, see us back to the street. So A4E Camden have threatened they will issue a sanction letter against Declan tomorrow if he doesn't agree to his one-month 'work boost' - 30 hours a week of unpaid work - at TPS. At the hearing of Declan's renewed application for permission to apply for Judicial Review (see blog of 14 April Declan's Notice of Renewal of claim for permission to apply for Judicial Review), he will be arguing that A4E is engaging in an escalating series of harassing and discriminatory acts (see blog of 15 April Declan back to Lynne Featherstone MP with A4E's 14th breach of contract).

Just before leaving TPS, I asked co-founder Kate Bull to help us to stop the suspension of our benefits by getting in contact with A4E Camden Placement Advisor, Lola Olowu-Worth (who also happens to be Declan's employment officer) to tell her that she didn't need either of us to do our one-month 'work boost' at TPS. She was very reluctant about writing that and in the end she walked away from me saying that she wasn't going to tell me what she was going to write. Well, this is what she wrote to the highly abusive Olowu-Worth:

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Central London County Court refuses to take Declan's case against Highgate Jobcentre Plus

This morning the Court Manager of the Central London County Court prevented Declan from lodging his case against Highgate Jobcentre Plus under the Data Protection Act because she deemed the evidence he adduced with his application for a fee remission to be insufficient. When Declan told her that he never encountered such a problem in the High Court (see blog of Declan's Notice of Renewal of claim for permission to apply for Judicial Review), she told him, "This is not the High Court". This is Declan's email back to her this evening:

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So now Declan has to get a letter from Jobcentre Plus Glasgow Benefit Delivery Centre to take a case against Highgate Jobcentre Plus! Well, this is Declan's case against Highgate Jobcentre Plus:

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First thing tomorrow morning, Declan will send his letter to the Glasgow Benefit Delivery Centre by recorded delivery.

'Work Boost' at The People's Supermarket? I don't think so!

Arthur Potts Dawson, Co-founder & Executive Chef of The People's Supermarket

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. As I explained in the previous blog Declan back to Lynne Featherstone MP with A4E's 14th breach of contract, we have been on an A4E 'work placement' - 16 hours a week of unpaid work - at The People's Supermarket (TPS), which has been championed by Prime Minister David Cameron as an example of how his "Big Society" can work. A4E are under tremendous pressure to ensure that they send Declan back to our jobcentre with any sort of work experience on the shop floor of TPS so that the jobcentre can then run a number on his jobseeker's agreement: a job in a supermarket such as Tesco, Sainsbury's or Morrisons would be just the ticket to not only have us out of our home and ready to be fired at the drop of a hat, but more significantly, see us back to the street!

So far we have managed not to set foot on the shop floor, and neither of us have any intention of doing our 'work boost' - a mandatory one month of unpaid work at 30 hours per week - at TPS when this placement finishes next week. A4E threaten they will issue a sanction letter against Declan if he doesn't agree to his 'work boost' at TPS, but if our jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus, take our benefits, they will have to argue at the hearing of Declan's renewed application for permission to apply for Judicial Review (see blog of 14 April Declan's Notice of Renewal of claim for permission to apply for Judicial Review) that they are not discriminating against us and that in fact they regularly force claimants – with similar levels of education, skill and achievement – to undergo a ‘work boost’ at TPS and the like. This is my email to TPS yesterday, in which I flaunt the Metropolitan Police's secretive National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU):

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Below is a video clip of Tory Employment Minister Chris Grayling talking about a new "revolutionary" work programme to put people who are claiming incapacity benefit back to work with the help of private contractors, the largest of which is A4E. What people should be made aware of is that the only revolution taking place here is that these private companies are not subject to the provisions of Jobseeker's Act 1995, according to John Howell QC (sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge), who dismissed Declan's initial application for permission to apply for Judicial Review (the Judge's reasons can be read here). What it means is that for so long as these companies don't issue a sanction letter, they can do just about anything they want and the claimant has no remedy under welfare law - we have had the tampering and altering of documents; the unauthorised and unlawful recording of meetings; the denial of the right to reply to outrageous written statements against us; and much more besides (see previous blog). Grayling's "Back to Work Support" will allow for unimaginable abuses.

Declan back to Lynne Featherstone MP with A4E's 14th breach of contract

Arthur Potts Dawson, centre, meets the Prime Minister at the People's Supermarket last month

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 (see the video in last week's blog A4E: David Blunkett MP replies). The DWP must have them under serious pressure because despite Declan now writing to our MP, Lynne Featherstone, who also happens to be a minister in the Home Office, this morning it was the 14th breach of contract by A4E Camden in less than 7 months! So he has been back to Featherstone again this afternoon (Featherstone is quite familiar with Declan and only a couple of weeks ago wrote him another letter regarding the unlawful interception of our emails, see blog of 26 March Interception of emails: Home Office minister advises Declan to find himself a solicitor):

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As the email shows, Declan and I have been on an A4E 'work placement' since 4 April at The People's Supermarket (TPS), which has been at the centre of David Cameron’s “Big Society” programme. We are there until 29 April to provide long-term volunteering opportunities for clients of Write to Life run by the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. TPS is the brainchild of celebrity chef Arthur Potts Dawson, a nephew of Mick Jagger. To keep prices and running costs low, much of what is needed to run TPS is provided by members and volunteers.

The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture is a high profile charity. Their chief executive is former Tory MP, Keith Best. According to their 2009-2010 Annual Report, they received 55 legacies from supporters, generating nearly £900,000, as well as "generous support" from a range of Trusts, Foundations and grant-makers. Donations from individuals provide the core income for their work. In 2008, individuals contributed £4,785,167 towards a total income of £7,382,119.

Keith Best, former Tory MP and Chief Executive of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture (52 secs)

Declan's Notice of Renewal of claim for permission to apply for Judicial Review

We have just discovered that the graphic of Declan's Notice of Renewal of claim for permission to apply for Judicial Review, which we were providing a link to in the previous blog, has been deleted. Nothing new in that (see blog of 12 September 2010 NAC blog is hijacked and vandalised).

Well, here is the Order of John Howell QC (sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge) refusing Declan permission to apply for a judicial review because in his opinion Action for Employment (A4E) are not subject to the provisions of the Jobseeker's Act 1995:

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And here is Declan's application for renewal in which he raises an important point of principle or practice, namely that he is being provided with no remedy under welfare law for discriminatory practice by A4E:

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The List Office now has to arrange a date for the renewal hearing. Usually the date for a renewal hearing is communicated to the claimant within 8 weeks of the Administrative Court Office's receipt of an application for renewal. Declan has been informed by the Office that if he is not contacted within the next 6 weeks, he should take the matter up with the List Office directly.

A4E: David Blunkett MP replies

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. Yesterday Declan’s A4E Camden employment officer, Lola Worth, refused him his right to have his "view" typed into his "Journey Plan" and then tampered and altered what she asked him to sign – Worth is exceptionally abusive, in fact Declan says she is singularly the most abusive person he has ever come across in an office (a "pseudo-bully"), and she has a lengthy track record of breaching Declan’s contract, so neither he nor I can say that we were at all surprised with this latest skulduggery. Of the 12 breaches cited here, Worth is directly or indirectly responsible for no less than 8 (Emma Harrison CBE is the founder and Chairman of A4E, and has had every single breach brought to her attention at the time of infraction):

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The next time A4E hands one of us an outrageous Journey Plan without the right of reply, it is going, unsigned, straight into a bag to be produced in court. Last week John Howell QC (sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge) refused Declan permission to apply for a judicial review because in his opinion A4E are not subject to the provisions of the Jobseeker's Act 1995 (his reasons can be read here). However, Declan has renewed his application in order to raise an important point of principle or practice, namely that he is being provided with no remedy under welfare law for discriminatory practice by A4E (see here). The List Office now has to arrange a date for the renewal hearing. Suffice to say that Declan’s case for discrimination against A4E is going through the roof!


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.