A scheme to buy lawnmowers, suits and even steam irons to help people find work lost millions on items never fully accounted for.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal the taxpayer-funded project administered by job centres made £3million of awards to the unemployed in the past three years without keeping proper receipts.
The Flexibility Support Fund (FSF) can be used to pay for travel costs for people to attend interviews, fund child care and buy equipment needed for a new job.
One grant in the summer involved buying a top-of-the-range self-propelled lawnmower for someone to start a gardening business.
But in the previous three financial years, more than £3million of FSF awards were written off by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as ‘cash losses’ after claimants did not give receipts or provided ‘incomplete or incorrect receipts’.
The DWP has now introduced new ‘security measures to better track spending’, including insisting that most payments are made by job centre staff rather than giving the money to claimants and hoping they provide proof of purchase.
Last night, Labour MP Graham Stringer said: ‘You wouldn’t run a whelk stall like this.
‘Helping people to get a job is a good idea but it must be properly accounted for. If the DWP is finally introducing proper controls, it’s not before time.’
The FSF losses came to light only after DWP officials this year removed the need for receipts by insisting that job centre work coaches bought the items first with an official departmental ‘approval to buy’ credit card
One grant in the summer involved buying a top-of-the-range self-propelled lawnmower for someone to start a gardening business (Stock Image)
One payment of £1,099 was made to luxury steam iron/ironing board company Laurastar SA (Stock Image)
Other FSF awards over the summer included a £1,249 payment at John Lewis (Stock Image)
Ironically, the FSF losses came to light only after DWP officials this year removed the need for receipts by insisting that job centre work coaches bought the items first with an official departmental ‘approval to buy’ credit card.
But as the MoS revealed last month, that led to the disclosure that this summer the card was used on an apparent spending spree at stores including John Lewis, Argos, Halfords and Moss Bros.
DWP officials have declined to disclose specific purchases, but said they could include ‘smart clothing for interviews’ and essential tools and equipment for ‘specialist roles’.
But sources said a £1,259 transaction in August at garden machinery dealer Cheltenham Mowers was for a ‘Lawnflite Pro’ self-propelled petrol mower for a claimant setting up a gardening business.
Other FSF awards over the summer included:
- Two transactions at farm and gardening supplier Sam Turner & Sons, worth £1,447 in total
- A £1,249 payment at John Lewis
- £555 at clothing chain Moss Bros
- £1,099 at luxury steam iron/ironing board company Laurastar SA.
A DWP spokesperson said: ‘The Flexible Support Fund is managed by Jobcentres to provide additional support to people – including purchasing goods or training – to remove barriers for those trying to move into work.
‘In June, we strengthened and enhanced transparency in spending, by introducing new security measures to better track spending.
‘This means that instead of claimants purchasing goods themselves, the majority of all payments are now made by Work Coaches using a Department credit card.’
