Quote: lofthouse @ January 28 2013, 6:15 PM GMTMonday 28 January 2013
A documentary investigation into one of the firms responsible for delivering the Government's £5bn Work Programme claims to have found evidence of staff using an 'offensive' code to describe disabled and jobless people.
Clients of Triage, a key player in the Government's plan to pay private companies to move people from benefit into work, were referred to as 'LTB' - code for "lying, thieving bastards", a former employee alleges.
Linda Smith, who worked for Triage, which operates in Scotland and the north of England, told the BBC that the term was used to describe jobless and disabled clients, and that the company used a practice known as 'parking' to keep disabled people on their books.
Mrs Smith said that under the scheme firms can earn more money from taking on the disabled people as clients, but that once they are on the company's books staff are told to spend as little time as possible helping them find work.
"They would be put on telephone interviews... just to make sure that there was this contact made so they could tick a box to say, 'Yeah, they're still on the Work Programme'," Mrs Smith said.
The BBC claims that four other former Triage employees confirmed the use of the LTB code and told the BBC similar stories about clients on their books being 'parked'.
Tony Wilson, 34, from Middlesbrough was referred to the Work Programme through Triage in February 2012, told the BBC he believes he has been 'parked': "They haven't done a single thing to help me in any way," he said.
He also condemned the use of the LTB label allegedly given to those on long-term benefits: "That's offensive. It's unprofessional. It's - so many words I could say about that. It's just wrong."Loathsome Tory Bastards
Labour and Torys are equally shite in this area, the defacto decision is to pay disabled people not to work. And charities or private companies to pretend to try and find them jobs or train them to work.
The blindingly obvious solution is to force companies not to discriminate and infact positively discriminate in favour of disabled workers. There's not many who would need the help.
