It's absolutety not fit for purpose and it has contributed naff all to site safety. Nice little earner for some spivs indeed. I'm not in the sector (was in medicine) but sick of seeing local people drop in their 50s, 40s some even their 30s worn out by it all one way or another and people of all ages being killed and injured for a pittence and a post-mortem pat on the head for being a poular hard worker. More people being killed at work in one year (oops accident, sorry we'll defend it in court) than in a ten year campaign in Iraq with opposition comabatants trying their outright best to kill and maim. It's turned a blind eye to until after the fact by the HSE, they are far too comfortable in their offices to bother putting on their shiny new PPE and going into cold dirty places with ghastly types. I'm not sure the HSE figure take into account people dying of chronic conditions caused by work such as mesotheliomas, asbestos and other metal/mineral dust related conditions, tumours from chemical exposure, needlesticks, depression and other stuff I can't recall at this hour. Do they mention any of this at the CITB recruitment tests at schools? Most don't choose to be self employed either, it's a status effectively imposed by the agencies who about a quarter of the rate off if they have to operate payroll for the agency worker. In a buoyant economy, if an agency worker does go S/E, work through an umbrella or Ltd Co rates are about the same straight time rate as the staff workers but overtime (evening weekends) is usually at straight rate so the agency worker earns less than the staffer if there are long shifts. In a less than buoyant economy the straight time rates are lower than staff. The public purse loses tax revenues paying for the contractors' stuff that the company should be paying for, the contractor loses out every way imaginable. For instance if the contractor has a high outlay on stuff this might take their NI contributions to such a level that their state pension or benefits entitlement is affected. The contractor also takes the risk of HMRC inpectors, as a result of the working status that wasn't even their choice in the first place. That is some kind of weird back-door socialism funding private companies and sometimes public sector organisations at the HMRC's and contractors' expense. No doubt the HMRC (pensioned unionised s who'd never have to put their hand in their own pocket) will identify this as 'loopholes' and further erode the rights of people who are effectively forced to take short term work. It's all messed up. The welfare to work companies are well aware of this, whether they will be an agent for change remains to be seen. At the risk of sounding like a socialist, Britain would be working if there were more reasonable working conditions with employment rights to work in (c.f. Germany, a country a regional politician cited recently criticising the work ethic of some Brits).

£13,000 that's shocking! I thought the programme would be a good thing in principle, the principle being that they offer practical much-needed help to people finding it difficult to obtain work. The actual service delivery seems to be more about public funds delvery to the account of Deloitte Ingeus. There is a long list of demands from service users yet the only SLA promise sI found in the documentation I Rxed was that they will have a first aider, first aid kit and the other basic H&S stuff. I could really use financial help for the certifications I need to get back into the sector I normally work in. They have refused outright even suggesting I take out a loan to cover the costs. There is a page with the SLAs for all the different providers on the DWP site. I can't post links so search for provider minimum service delivery. Odset It's appalling that construction workers, many on not much more than NMW are expected to pay for their own safety training, including certs to build tower scaffolds, go up on scissor lifts and cherry pickers and PPE and safety clothing. I looked up the access equipment certs and they were several hundred for the lot, renewable every few years. I'm in the wrong racket! (note to self: as a plan B devise an opportunistic must-have 'safety' certification scheme that expires and franchise the concept out) Tradespeople are increasing required to pay for their own grade recertification, plant, vehicles on top of they tools they already have to supply. I don;t think the DWP get the scale of the certification industry problem, how many government workers in the wider civil service have to pay for their own training, they'd laugh at the suggestion. They'd baulk at having to supply even their own pen. In Ingeus' defence they have in fact helped out construction workers with the cost of CSCS cards. IIRC from what I read of the answer book many of the answers were "tell your supervisor", frequently an irresponsible who doesn't give a hoot about providing a safe sytem of work.

Hi, I'm new on the forum, which I found on a search for INGEUS. How much are this croney mob going to be paid for ‘helping’ me? I am on JSA, have care responsibilities for my father and will probably have to go on attendance allowance wihin the year.