A4E raises a second 'sanction doubt' against Declan

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 (DWP). The last time A4E raised a sanction doubt against Declan, our housing benefit was suspended without warning or explanation (see previous blog DWP instructed Haringey Council to stop paying our rent). On that occasion it was because Declan would not agree to be trained as a warehouse operative; today the sanction doubt was raised by his highly abusive A4E Advisor Lola Olowu-Worth because he did not turn up for an unagreed basic maths test she brazenly went ahead and arranged for him for job vacancies in WH Smith, the British newspapers, books and stationery retailer.

This afternoon Olowu-Worth was as outrageous as ever (breaching Declan's contract with A4E no less than 12 times within 30 minutes), but the situation now is simple. Legally our jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus, must ask Declan for his answer to this latest sanction doubt raised by Olowu-Worth, but his views were never sought the last time. So Declan has upped the ante once again with this email just now to our MP, Lynne Featherstone, who also happens to be the Minister for Equalities:

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We are still waiting to hear from the List Office in the High Court with a date for the hearing of Declan's case against Highgate Jobcentre Plus (see blog of 14 April Declan's Notice of Renewal of claim for permission to apply for Judicial Review). Declan is challenging the lack of remedy under welfare law for discriminatory practice by A4E. However, according to the Administrative Court Office, his application for expedition last December has expired, and there's no telling when a date will be set for his renewal hearing. Declan's latest to the court manager of the ACO about this earlier this week was copied to Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Kenneth Clarke.

Suffice to say we have absolutely no way of knowing whether there will be any money in our building society for Declan to withdraw next Tuesday (a first), his complaint pursuant to Stage 1 of the DWP's complaints procedure over the interruption to our housing benefit payments notwithstanding. I will, therefore, work hard this weekend on our homepage just in case, featuring in the middle column Gordon Brown's Jobs + Justice campaign, a call on the G20 leaders to launch a global green jobs and stimulus plan to lift millions out of poverty. That will leave me with Monday to work on Declan's draft of our first grant request to a foundation.


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.

DWP instructed Haringey Council to stop paying our rent

This is only a short update to yesterday's blog Haringey Council has stopped paying our rent?, which contains a stunning photograph of MI5 whistleblower David Shayler, who lived for a couple of years in one of the rooms below us. It turns out that indeed Haringey Council had stopped paying our rent. This morning Declan had no sooner mailed his latest judicial review letter before claim when he received a phone call and then an email from Haringey Council about the shenanigans. Apparently, the Department for Work and Pensions notified them that our Income Support was due to be terminated today but then that it had been reinstated (all unknown to us, and without explanation):

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This evening Declan dispatched his subject access request under the Data Protection Act 1998 requesting the DWP's notifications. And this after we were forced by the DWP to sleep 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 About us). No doubt Shayler has a story or two about Haringey Council. According to the BBC's Panorama programme, Shayler “caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair”. Shayler, who goes by the name of Delores Kane and has declared himself to be Jesus, is the one sitting on the chair:

Haringey Council has stopped paying our rent?

Even though we have developed eyes on the back of our heads, we didn't see Haringey Council coming in the sense that Declan did not expect to call into our building society today to discover there was no rent there to withdraw. Some time ago, the Council came up with the idea of paying us by the week rather than by the month. What that means to anybody who pays rent by the month is that the payments leave them with a shortfall in rent to pay. This is Haringey's letter to Declan last week informing him that his appeal has been sent, at his request, to the Tribunals Service - nowhere in this letter does it state that his housing benefit payments have been stopped:

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And this is Declan's judicial review letter before claim requesting that his appeal be sent to the Tribunals Service as 'duly made':

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Declan will have no difficulty writing another letter before claim tomorrow, once again copied to the Leader of Haringey Council, Councillor Claire Kober, and is well on track to have his case filed in the High Court before our rent is due on the 26th of this month. As I have mentioned in a number of blogs, MI5 whistleblower David Shayler lived for a couple of years in one of the rooms below us. According to the BBC, Shayler “caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair”. By the time he left here, around 2007, he had been successfully neutralised: he changed his name to Delores Kane, declared himself to be Jesus, and became a squatter.


Former MI5 whistleblower David Shayler after he was evicted from Hackhurst Farm on 20 August 2009.

Our live-in landlady, Belinda McKenzie, is a well-known human rights activist who is involved in many human rights causes, including Stop the War Coalition, Iranian solidarity, Hollie Demands Justice, and abuse in the Church. I should probably ask her how on earth she is able to do all that work without attracting the interest of the Metropolitan Police's secretive National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). It doesn't take much to attract their attention: here's a Guardian's article dated 25 June 2010 titled Peace campaigner, 85, classified by police as 'domestic extremist'!

Human rights activist Belinda McKenzie speaking at the UK Rally against child abuse, 4 June 2011, Trafalgar Square

Department for Work Pensions's threat to terminate our benefits on 8 June is very real

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. Last month the DWP threatened us by letter with the termination of our benefits on 8 June without an explanation (see blog of 18 May Department for Work and Pensions threatens to terminate our benefits on 8 June). Then, on cue, two days later A4E raised a "sanction doubt" on Declan's joint claim for Jobseeker's Allowance because he did not attend an unagreed 'work boost' - 30 hours per week of unpaid work for four weeks - at Booker Cash and Carry, to be trained as a warehouse operative! Today Declan was told he was expected to sit a basic maths test on Monday to be put forward for job vacancies in WH Smiths, the British newspapers, books and stationery retailer.

The situation now is simple: legally our jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus, must ask Declan for his answer to A4E's sanction doubt before 8 June, but Declan has already experienced a sanction by the Jobcentre without his views being sought (see blog of 20 May Central London County Court refuses to commit to taking Declan's case against Highgate Jobcentre Plus). So Declan has upped the ante with this email to our MP, Lynne Featherstone, who also happens to be a minister in the Home Office (the letter from Featherstone that Declan refers to in the first paragraph is published here):

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All 54 breaches of contract cited in Declan's email above occurred right under the nose of Harrison, which can only mean she is fully behind them. Already Declan has emailed two specialist firms of solicitors looking for representation at the upcoming hearing of his application for permission to apply for Judicial Review against Highgate Jobcentre Plus of the Department for Work and Pensions (see blog of 14 April Declan's Notice of Renewal of claim for permission to apply for Judicial Review).


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.