creating futures founder william cook keith faulkner sir leigh lewis headquarters middlesbrough united kingdom number of locations 100 2015 area served uk ireland middle east key people phil andrew ceo number of employees 2800 divisions employability international justice subsidiaries turas nua ireland wales crc devon dorset & cornwall crc bristol swindon wiltshire & gloucestershire crc . website workinglinks.co.uk working links formally working links employment limited was established in 2000 as a public private and voluntary company that provides welfare services and help with employability . it was acquired by the investment group aurelius in june 2016 . 1 working links helps disadvantaged people including the long term unemployed people with disabilities and people with convictions . as of 2016 they have helped over 350 000 people into employment . 1 it is one of the providers of the work programme initiative that has helped more than 400 000 people into sustainable work in britain . 2 their turnover grew from 63 million in 2006 to 123 million in 2012 . 3 4 in 2012 company was the subject of fraud allegations made by its former chief auditor eddie hutchinson . 5 working links denied the allegations stating that they have a zero tolerance approach to fraud and rigorous processes in place to handle any suspected incidents of fraud or other misconduct . the department for work and pensions stated that the allegations all relate to programmes run by the previous government and that they have measures in place to prevent fraud . 6 contents 1 history 2 work programme 3 transforming rehabilitation 4 allegations of fraud 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit working links was established in 2000 by the shareholder executive manpower and ernst & young consulting . ernst & young consulting merged with gemini consulting a branch of cap gemini to form cap gemini ernst & young . cap gemini ernst & young was renamed capgemini in 2004 . the charity mission australia acquired a share of the company in 2006 rendering working links the first public private and voluntary organisation in the uk . european investment firm aurelius acquired working links for an undisclosed sum in june 2016 . 7 it has delivered contracts on behalf of government departments primarily to get people back into work starting with employment zones and also including pathways to work progress to work new deal new deal for disabled people work choice esf family support and flexible new deal . in 2011 working links won three contract package areas to deliver the coalition government s new work programme . this made working links the third largest work programme provider in the uk . the three contracts acquired were the south west wales and scotland and as of may 2012 receives around 120 million a year from the dwp and various other governmental bodies . work programme edit working links has helped more than 62 000 people find a job through the work programme as of june 2015 . working links referred the most cases for financial sanctions 11 910 to be taken against welfare recipients amongst work programme suppliers between june 2011 and january 2012 . 8 richard whittell from corporate watch said the work programme appeared to be focused on slashing benefit rather than putting people into work . these figures give the lie to the government s claims its welfare reforms are about helping people into work . 9 by the time it s finished more people will have been sanctioned by the work programme than properly employed through it . every month thousands of people are having their only source of income stopped and being pushed into hardship . companies like serco working links and g4s may not be very good at finding people suitable work but they re dab hands at punishing them . the private firms say they make their referrals to job centres in line with government guidelines . 10 working links sub contract work to companies such as triage and routes to work in north lanarkshire . 11 the bbc broadcast a documentary in which five former employees of triage claimed that disabled and jobless people processed by the company were referred to as ltb s lying thieving bastards . 12 a spokesman for working links said we work with a number of subcontractors all of whom go through a stringent vetting and approval process . we take any allegations of poor practice seriously and will be looking into matters further . 13 transforming rehabilitation edit in 2015 working links was awarded contracts to run three community rehabilitation companies as part of the government s transforming rehabilitation reforms with the aim of cutting reoffending . under the reforms probation services have been split into two with the national probation service managing high risk offenders and community rehabilitation companies managing low and medium risk offenders . working links is responsible for the delivery of community rehabilitation companies in wales ; dorset devon and cornwall ; and bristol gloucestershire somerset and wiltshire . allegations of fraud edit in may 2011 a former auditor of working links claimed that the level of fraud at working links escalated to a farcical situation and was endemic but that he faced a stonewall from managers . mr hutchinson said he had encountered a multi billion pound scandal after working for working links and a4e in the welfare to work industry . 14 working links said we firmly reject any assertion of widespread fraud within our business . 15 the department for work and pensions ruled that all allegations had been investigated at the time and no further action was needed . see also edit information on the government s flexible new deal programme a4e references edit a b aurelius acquires leading provider of employability and rehabilitation services working links . eqs group . jun 29 2016 . retrieved 31 august 2016 . government hails success of work programme . 18 jun 2015 . recruiter . retrieved 31 august 2016 . profile working links and a4e . the telegraph . 24 may 2012 . retrieved 31 august 2016 . premier inn to create 70 new jobs in glasgow . daily record . 30 august 2012 . retrieved 31 august 2016 . billion pound scandal in welfare to work . the telgraph . 23 may 2012 . retrieved 31 august 2016 . working links accused of engaging in systemic fraud by former chief auditor . wales online . 25 may 2012 . retrieved 31 august 2016 . yahoo finance news story david cameron s back to work firms want benefits cut more often the guardian daniel boffey 30 june 2012 1 david cameron s back to work firms want benefits cut more often the guardian daniel boffey 30 june 2012 2 the guardian daniel boffey 30 june 2012 3 back to work firm attacks offensive behaviour claim the herald 29 january 2013 retrieved 2 march 2013 4 5 lying thieving b s bbc documentary lifts the lid on offensive code used to describe disabled and jobless the independent 28 january 2013 retrieved 2 march 2013 6 back to work firm attacks offensive behaviour claim the herald 29 january 2013 retrieved 2 march 2013 7 billion pound scandal in welfare to work telegraph 23 may 2012 8 liam byrne ids has been asleep at the wheel over a4e telegraph 24 may 2012 9 external links edit official website for the record working links guardian 23 august 2009 how labour has radically changed employment services guardian 3 march 2010 auditors to tell mps of fraud ignored at welfare to work firms guardian 21 may 2012 billion pound scandal in welfare to work telegraph 23 may 2012 welfare to work fraud scandal telegraph 23 may 2012 profile working links and a4e telegraph 23 may 2012 v t e workfare in the united kingdom workfare programmes community action programme mandatory work activity sector based work academies work programme steps to work day one support for young people trailblazer derbyshire trailblazer mandatory youth activity programme help to work workfare providers primes a4e avanta best careers development group employment and skills group g4s ingeus maximus newcastle college prospects services reed rehab seetec serco working links workfare companies list of british organisations who have participated in workfare programmes opposition boycott workfare solidarity federation litigation r v secretary of state for work and pensions ex p reilly department for work and pensions v information commissioner legislation jobseekers back to work schemes act 2013 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title working links & oldid 737840565 categories companies based in sheffieldcompanies based in middlesbroughwelfare in the united kingdomdepartment for work and pensionsgovernment owned companies of the united kingdomworkfare in the united kingdomhidden categories use dmy dates from july 2013use british english from july 2013 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 5 september 2016 at 09 44 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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