AIBU to think Kids Company was actually just an arrangement that mainly funded the lifestyles of a group of Camilla B's pals?

[LuluJakey1]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3267799/Scadal-hit-charity-Kids-Company-facing-new-questions-giving-hundreds-thousands-pounds-tax-free-employees.html

Chauffeur paid £40,000 + and his two children at private schools paid for by KC. His sister CB's seamstress full-time and the lawyer -both roles paid for by KC

I just do not know how CB could honestly justify any of this behaviour and not see it is wrong.

Any charity that works with disadvantaged young people, knows one of the issues can be some clients sexually harassing and bullying other clients. CB seems to ignore this issue.

I don't think there is much evidence that they provided a lot of people with help. They claimed to have helped 36,000 people. When the end came they could only provide details of less than 500 clients. It seems at least 25 of these were staff, more were the children and relatives of staff. And millions and millions of pounds were spent on this tiny group of people.

I expect criminal charges are going to follow soon. I think people who are still insisting they 'did a lot of good' and were 'valuable' should read the last thread. There is almost no evidence of them doing much at all.

As for the Christmas lunches, the last thread covered this, they seem to be hugely exaggerated, and appear not to have gone to the needy but were a case of 'bums on seats' for pictures.

Cleaty, your post on page 3 was exactly what I was trying to express.

Giving people a meal at Christmas is undoubtedly a good thing to do, but does it really require millions and millions of pounds? I think not.

I work in palliative care. I give emotional support and get my hands dirty. I actually do something.

It seems she was one of those people who had the backing of the powers that be so any criticism wasn't tolerated. But I think CB was one of those people who couldn't see anything but her own point of view and she probably thought there was nothing worng with paying for private school fees for her employees children. After all it was a charity and these children would benefit. It's strange that auditors didn't pick up these 'irregularities.' Let's hope prosecutions follow if the money was not spent legitimately.

Grazia on another thread where i put a link about a single mum who had been left with no cooking facilities because of her HA and social services had to step in with a mini cooker on Christmas Eve i saw no praise from social services from you. Just your usual crap about entitled benefits claimants. Im a bit worried about your back Must be a bit of a strain moving all those goalposts. Yet now you think its morally good to avoid tax.

And of course CB had the backing of the powers that be. It fit with the Big Society narrative which many fell for .....and voted for.

I have not said they have not broken the law. I've said they are foolish. I just don't think they were malign - they wanted to help children. I don't support anyone who breaks the law or fiddles their tax. I pay loads of tax and it's very very unfair if others don't even if they work at a charity and want the money instead to go to the children not on pointless foreign wars and the like.

Grazia what? If they wanted all the money to go to the children why didn't they spend it on the children rather than all of these lavish and unnecessary expenses?

Grazia you really have been making some very odd points. Merely foolish - oh please how naïve.

I pay loads of tax and it's very very unfair if others don't even if they work at a charity and want the money instead to go to the children not on pointless foreign wars and the like

What on earth is that supposed to mean? Camilla and her cronies are not only helping children but are peace refuseniks too?

Concerns about Kids Company raised as early as 2002

More on Newsnight tonight. BBC2 10.30pm

Bloody hell! at that link...

Feck me that's bad.

I hope CB and AY are thoroughly grilled tomorrow.

CB is an absolute disgrace masquerading behind her self-created myths and her use of overly dramatic language and hyperbole which creates a narrative people have been uncomfortable questioning. God knows why but they have.
The King's New Clothes- nothing there, no substance but everyone afraid to say so and to question the myth that is CB.

I can see why people were reluctant to question CB...the way she dressed, how she spoke, the way she carried herself - it was all designed to make people fear her and it worked. She ruled through fear, if not her staff, then the general public.

She made people feel ordinary. She seemed extraordinary, and therefore someone to be believed in and admired.

Meh....I worked for a famous charity for ten years and have seen up close how the CEO and Directors behaved. It was awful. I have no respect for the upper echelons within the charity sector anymore.

Grazia, when you look at the sums of money these people were being paid, it wasn't done because they wanted to keep cash to help children, it went directly into the pockets of the people paid.

The sums either far exceed what they should be (£51k per annum for a painter and decorator) or right at the very top end of the reasonable salary scale (£42k for a training manager).

That is not an organisation which is diverting tax to helping children by diverting what should be paid in tax and only giving the employee the sum of their net salary. That is an organisation which is circumventing taxation so that their employees are paid the gross sum.

If you're suggesting figures like that should be paid plus tax and NI you would be looking at a charity training manager on £62k and a decorater on £75k. Which would also be a massive problem.

Especially when it's far from clear whether they were employees or 'clients'.

Just watched Newsnight. I wonder if CB feels any shame about her actions spending public and charitable funds with so little care or sense of being accountable?

And to be identified in those reports as so lacking in basic skills nevessary to carry out the job is humiliating. I would have stood down at that point.

I sense an arrogance and a feeling that she was untouchable and unchallenged. No one should ever be that- nothing is a more dangerous combination. It is a God complex.

Reports of this morning's hearing

[[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3273841/Under-fire-former-Kids-Company-chief-Camila-Batmanghelidjh-admits-handing-200-WEEK-children.html DM]

BBC

Sorry, DM link again

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3273841/Under-fire-former-Kids-Company-chief-Camila-Batmanghelidjh-admits-handing-200-WEEK-children.html

I was looking for this thread and couldn't find it, so posted on another.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2015/oct/15/kids-company-face-grilling-by-mps-live

Excellent quote here:

Batmanghelidjh was accused by one MP of providing a “torrent of verbal ectoplasm” in her answer to a question

Also the stories of suicide attempts and a murder since KC closed its doors...