Former Mencap PA pleads guilty to fraud at Crown Court

Asra Yildiz, 32, of Hackney in east London appeared at Blackfriars Crown Court, charged with defrauding the charity of £34,000

A former personal assistant to the chief executive of the learning disability charity Mencap has pleaded guilty to a £34,000 fraud.

Asra Yildiz, 32, from Hackney, east London, pleaded guilty at Blackfriars Crown Court last month to one count of fraud by abuse of position.

Yildiz, who was employed by the charity from 2011 until her dismissal in 2014 when the allegations came to light, was the PA to Mark Goldring, who left Mencap in 2013 to become chief executive of Oxfam, and his successor, Jan Tregelles.

It is alleged that Yildiz fraudulently spent £34,768.20 using a company credit card between 18 November 2012 and 29 April 2014.

Yildiz had originally pleaded not guilty to the offence, but changed her plea at a hearing on 20 October.

Tregelles said: “Asra Yildiz had worked at Mencap for a number of years until her dismissal in April 2014. She was in a position of trust, which she repeatedly abused by falsifying expenses and other claims for personal gain. Asra let herself, her Mencap colleagues and Mencap donors down.

“As the recent fraud report produced by the Charity Commission made clear, every charity needs to be alert to insider fraud.”

Yildiz will be sentenced next week.

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Mencap warns 25% of independent children’s homes could close

The charity fears that the requirement for learning disability organisations to fund back-pay for sleep-in carers will threaten provision for children’s homes

A quarter of independent children’s homes could close immediately if the government does not fully fund the £400m sleep-in care back-pay bill that is affecting care and learning disability charities, Mencap has warned.

The warning comes after a row with the government over back pay for sleep-in workers, who are used widely in the learning disability sector to provide care for vulnerable adults. Until recently workers were paid a flat-rate, “on-call” allowance rather than the national minimum wage.

After it had discussions with other organisations in the wider children and elderly care sectors, Mencap said that 25 per cent of independent children’s homes could be forced to close if HM Revenue & Customs was to start collecting up to six years of back-pay for sleep-in care workers.

Approximately three-quarters of children’s care services are run by independent providers, according to Mencap, and the charity is campaigning for the government to fully fund the back-pay bill to prevent the sector collapsing.

The sleep-in care crisis comes after two employment tribunal decisions made last year forced the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to change its guidance to ensure that the national minimum wage applied to sleep-in carers.

Before this, sleep-in care workers were typically paid a flat rate of £35 to £45, with workers receiving either the national minimum wage or the national living wage for the hours they spent providing care, according to the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, which represents charities that provide services to disabled people.

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Earlier this year, HMRC began asking some disability charities to give six years of back pay to affected staff, which Mencap estimated could cost the learning disability care sector £400m, and Mencap itself £20m.

HMRC’s enforcement action has twice been suspended, but is due to begin again from 2 November. The government is due to announce what action it will take before the end of the month.

Mencap chairman Derek Lewis said: “The government has created a perfect storm for providers from across the care sector.

“I urge government to recognise its responsibilities and commit to funding all ‘sleep-in’ back-payment liabilities. Assuming, as has been suggested by some, that providers can ‘trade through’ the crisis that is about to engulf children’s and learning disability care would be a catastrophic mistake.

“As government looks set to impose a new compliance regime for providers, it might spare a thought for the people – young and old – whose lives depend on the future of high-quality, independently provided social care. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

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Mencap faces £20m back-pay bill for sleep-in staff, says chair

Derek Lewis says that if the government does not pay this bill, the charity could be forced to transfer its care facilities back to local authorities

The learning disability charity Mencap might have to pay £20m in back pay for sleep-in care workers, which could lead to the closure of 200 residential care homes and services run by the charity and up to 4,000 staff being made redundant.

The warning comes after a row with government over back pay for sleep-in workers, who are used widely in the learning disability sector to provide care for vulnerable adults. Until recently workers were paid a flat-rate, “on-call” allowance rather than the national minimum wage.

Derek Lewis, chair of Mencap, said the government should provide funding for as much as £400m in back pay owed by social care charities to sleep-in care workers, and said that if it failed to do so it could force Mencap to transfer the care facilities it runs back to local authorities.

He also warned that, although the charity began paying sleep-in care staff the national living wage from 1 April, 40 per cent of local authority commissioners had not yet agreed to pay the new rate, a situation Lewis said was “not sustainable”.

The flat rate for a sleep-in care worker is typically £35 to £45, with workers receiving either the national minimum wage or the national living wage for the hours they spend providing care, according to the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, which represents charities that provide services to disabled people.

But in the wake of two employment tribunal decisions made last year, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has changed its guidance to ensure that the national minimum wage applies to sleep-in carers.

Earlier this year, HM Revenue & Customs began asking some disability charities to give six years of back pay to affected staff.

But the BEIS later said employers that had underpaid workers for sleep-in shifts before 26 July 2017 would have historical financial penalties waived and HMRC would suspend its enforcement activity about sleep-in care shifts until 2 October.

Lewis said that Mencap’s back-pay liability was approximately £20m, but the charity had only £19.6m in financial reserves.

“Funding back pay would require highly damaging actions to sell assets, cut programmes and cancel investment,” he said. “Our plans to improve the lives of those with learning disabilities could be set back by a decade or more as we struggle to repair the financial damage that would be caused by this liability.

“If government fails to fund or offers only partial funding, Mencap would be forced to take emergency action to hand back care services that do not cover costs to local authorities.

“Initially, this could result in the termination of care in more than 200 residential care homes and services, affecting more than 2,000 people who have serious learning disabilities. Between 3,000 and 4,000 dedicated care workers could face displacement or redundancy.”

Lewis has also criticised a Department of Health sample fact-gathering exercise on the extent of sleep-in care financial liabilities for being carried out “very late in the day”, with HMRC action against the charities due to resume in 25 days’ time.

“No one expected government to sign a blank cheque, but the process was very late in the day and hurried,” said Lewis.

“Scrambling to gather complex data in late August, when many people are away and tensions are running high, creates anxieties about the accuracy of information on which critical decisions will be taken.

“Concerns have been heightened by the government’s surprising refusal to share the results of this exercise with providers.”

The Department of Health is understood to be working with the social care sector on the issue and is expected to make a further announcement in the next few weeks.

A petition calling on the government to pay the £400m back-pay bill had been signed by more than 10,000 people as of this morning.

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Back-pay issue threatens care sector ‘as never before’, says Mencap chair

Derek Lewis says government should foot the bill to give back-pay to overnight sleep-in support workers, which could cost some charities up to £50,000

The learning disability sector is “under threat as never before”, according to Derek Lewis, chair of Mencap.

Lewis spoke out today as part of the sector’s continuing dispute with the government over who should fund £400m of back-pay for care workers that provide overnight sleep-in support.

Mencap has claimed that, besides the threat posed to charities that employ sleep-in carers, the issue could also affect up to 100,000 families who pay for sleep-in support through personal care budgets. Some, it says, might face bills of up to £50,000.

The row has been simmering for several months after the government changed its guidance on sleep-in care workers. Until recently, most overnight care workers received a flat rate of £35 to £45, according to the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, which represents charities that provide services to people with disabilities.

But after two employment tribunal decisions, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy changed the guidance to say staff should be paid the national minimum wage. Sleep-in staff are now eligible to claim for loss of earnings dating back six years.

Mencap began paying the national living wage in April, but Lewis said it would “cause us severe problems” if it had to foot the bill for six years of back pay. He warned that a number of major care providers could collapse unless the government stepped in.

Ministers, said Lewis, had previously issued incorrect guidance and the government should therefore pay. “For a government that spent £780.3bn in the 2017 fiscal year, £400m doesn’t seem like much to ask,” said Lewis.

He said families and care workers were suffering growing uncertainty and anxiety while the issue remained unresolved. Charities also faced uncertainty, he said. Voluntary organisations account for about 60 per cent of the 200 care organisations affected by the ruling.

“The learning disability sector is under threat as never before,” said Lewis. “For Mencap, it is the worst crisis that the charity has faced in its 70-year history.

“About 178,000 people across the UK have serious learning disabilities and depend on the care that charities like Mencap provide.

“At Mencap, we worry about the effect that this is having on our staff, families and the people we care for. Our care workers do a fantastic job and we want to pay them fairly. Since April we have been complying with new government guidance and paying the national living wage, but trying to fund six years of back pay would cause us severe problems”.

Last month BEIS announced “exceptional measures” to “minimise disruption”. These included temporarily suspending HMRC enforcement action over payment of sleep-in shifts until 2 October and waiving historical financial penalties against employers who underpaid workers for sleep-in shifts before 26 July. But organisations still face the prospect of having to find £400m after 2 October.

A statement from BEIS said: “The government will continue to look at this issue extremely carefully alongside industry representatives to see how it might be possible to minimise any impact on provision of social care, and ensure that action taken to protect workers is fair and proportionate.”

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Game of Thrones actor backs Mencap petition on back-pay

Kit Harington has urged people to sign the online document, which calls for the government to pay the estimated £400m bill faced by care charities in back-pay for sleep-in shifts

The Game of Thrones actor Kit Harington has called on people to sign a petition from the learning disability charity Mencap asking for the government to foot the estimated £400m bill faced by care charities in back pay for sleep-in shifts.

The online petition, which has attracted more than 7,000 signatures, says many care providers face bankruptcy because of the bill, which “could mean the end of social care as we know it”.

According to Mencap, sleep-ins are used widely in the learning disability sector to provide care for vulnerable adults, and until recently workers were paid a flat-rate, “on-call” allowance rather than the national minimum wage.

The flat rate is typically £35 to £45, with workers receiving either the national minimum wage or the national living wage for the hours they spend providing care.

But in the wake of two employment tribunal decisions from last year, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy changed its guidance to ensure the national minimum wage applied to sleep-in carers.

As a result, HM Revenue & Customs has begun asking disability charities to give six years of back pay to affected staff. Mencap said this could cost the sector as much as £400m.

“We are asking the government to urgently commit to paying this bill as the sector cannot afford it,” the petition says. “Government caused this problem: only they can fix it.”

A statement last week from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy said employers that underpaid workers for sleep-in shifts before 26 July 2017 would have historical financial penalties waived and HMRC would suspend its enforcement activity about sleep-in care shifts until 2 October.

“The government will continue to look at this issue extremely carefully alongside industry representatives to see whether any further support is needed and ensure that action taken to protect workers is fair and proportionate, while seeing how it might be possible to minimise any impact on social care provision,” the BEIS statement said.

“The learning disability sector in the UK is on the brink of crisis,” says Harington in the video. “It is faced with a back-pay bill of £400m which it cannot pay.

“Many of the providers of this essential, sleep-in service face bankruptcy. And some of the most vulnerable people in our society will be left without care, without hope and without an independent future.”

Harington, who is an ambassador for Mencap, has a cousin with Down’s syndrome and autism, who has been supported by the charity throughout her life.

Another Mencap ambassador, the DJ Jo Whiley, who has a disabled sister who receives sleep-in care, helped to launch the petition last week.

Jan Tregelles, chief executive of Mencap, said in a statement that the back-pay problem was the “most critical issue that Mencap has faced in 70 years”.

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