Complaints from individuals
PLEASE NOTE: In order to fulfill its duty to protect public funds, the Department may use information that it holds to prevent and detect fraud. It may also share such information, for the same purpose, with other organisations that handle public funds and the police.
The Department received considerable information from individual account holders in the months leading up to and immediately following the closure of the ILA programme in November 2001. At the time, the Department said to individuals that it would get back to them to report on the results of investigations.
The scale of the problem and the complexity of the investigations of some learning providers have meant that the Department has had to concentrate its efforts on the learning providers in question. While it has not been possible to write individually to those people who wrote with concerns, the Department would like to express its gratitude to those people who took the trouble to write and describe their complaints and concerns. The information provided allowed Ministers to act robustly in closing the ILA programme and subsequently has proved invaluable in aiding the Department's investigation of those providers who may have abused the scheme.
