New Deal 'job-brokers' at centre of fraud probe

A firm supposed to be helping disabled people back to work as part of the government's New Deal programme is at the centre of a fraud investigation, police and government officials said today.

Manchester-based Maatwerk was involved in the scheme which paid "job-brokers" bonuses to help people on disability or sickness benefit find jobs.

But the company has now faces a police investigation following a probe by the Department of Work and Pensions, a government spokeswoman has confirmed.

She said: "We take all such allegations very seriously. We have now completed our enquiries and passed our files on to Greater Manchester Police."

A police spokeswoman said: "GMP has been passed details of an investigation regarding allegations of fraud by a recruitment company that used to be based in Manchester city centre.

"Officers will be reviewing the information they've been given and will be taking the file to the CPS for further consideration. Inquiries are ongoing."

The Dutch company which operates in the UK, Netherlands and Germany was bought out by US firm ResCare last year.

A spokesman for Maatwerk's parent company ResCare said: "This is something that we only found out about after buying the company.

"We inherited these unfortunate allegations and have since worked to bring operations at Maatwerk up to ResCare standards.

"This is not something we will tolerate in our company and we are co-operating fully with the authorities in investigating these allegations."