Wikipedia
PeoplePlus, a trading name for A4e, formerly known as Action for Employment, is a for-profit welfare-to-work company based in the United Kingdom. The company began in Sheffield in 1991 to provide redundant steelworkers with training so that they could find new jobs. They now operate in five countries, but retain a significant presence in the UK where they work with organisations in the public sector such as the Department for Work and Pensions.
In the wake of various controversies and criminal investigations, MPs Fiona Mactaggart and former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Margaret Hodge urged the UK government to suspend contracts with A4e. In March 2012, following fraud allegations regarding an A4e contract, the Department for Work and Pensions began an independent audit of all its commercial relationships with A4e. On 15 May 2012, Employment Minister Chris Grayling announced that the audits for the Work Programme, the New Enterprise Allowance programme and Mandatory Work Activity found no evidence of fraud in any of these contracts. However, while the team found no evidence of fraud, it identified weaknesses in A4e's internal controls on the Mandatory Work Activity contract in the South East and that this contract with A4e had been terminated, after deciding that continuing would pose 'too great a risk'.
In March 2015 six former employees received jail sentences for forging files in a scam that was said to have cost taxpayers almost £300,000. Four received suspended sentences. In a telling aside, judge Angela Morris said it was not for her to decide whether more senior managers should also be held to account.