Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-11-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions were held with the two Jobcentre Plus staff dismissed from Plaistow Jobcentre in May 2014 after a complaint about misuse of the Flexible Support Fund on (a) whether that misuse was part of a pattern of malpractice and (b) by whom it was authorised.

Priti Patel

Allegations of misuse of the Flexible Support Fund at Plaistow Jobcentre during 2013 and 2014 were investigated fully by the Department’s investigators. Various discussions were held and investigators also undertook further work, completed in July 2014, which examined whether there was a pattern of malpractice or any evidence of wider misuse, of which none was found, of the Flexible Support Fund at this office or other offices in the immediate area.