{"id":297083,"date":"2025-07-27T23:37:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T23:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/297083\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T23:37:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T23:37:12","slug":"relief-as-disability-employment-provider-bedford-avoids-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/297083\/","title":{"rendered":"Relief as disability employment provider Bedford avoids administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Stevens has been working at Bedford Industries for almost two decades, but in the past few days, he has felt uncertain about his future.<\/p>\n

Every Monday to Thursday, he packages boxes for companies such as Doritos and San Remo.<\/p>\n

“I love it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s really good just to do hands-on jobs, and it’s really interesting just to do different multiple jobs for different companies.”<\/p>\n

Asked what his favourite part of going to work was, Mr Stevens said: “It’s just chatting to all my colleagues and having a talk to them about a couple of things \u2026 talking about what’s our plans coming up for the weekend and that.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bedford’s Balyana houses 40 people in supported accommodation. (ABC News: Trent Murphy)<\/p>\n

That was all thrown into jeopardy on Thursday, when Bedford revealed that it was on the verge of entering administration<\/a> due to cash flow issues.<\/p>\n

The state government stepped in on Sunday with a $15 million loan to “stave off” administration<\/a>, at least temporarily, so the disability employment organisation could get back on its feet.<\/p>\n

Mr Stevens said he was “shocked [and] disappointed” when he heard that Bedford was in trouble.<\/p>\n

“It was really nerve-wracking because you thought you were going to lose your job on the spot,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

“We were all heartbroken and shocked.”<\/p>\n

His father Wayne Stevens said the work gave his son daily structure.<\/p>\n

“It has been something for him to go to on a daily basis, and to me, going to a job in a normal sense is more than just money, it’s also giving you a purpose,” Wayne Stevens said.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

David Stevens (left) and his father Wayne were worried about Bedford’s future. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Wayne Stevens said he would be concerned for his son and other employees if Bedford was to close.<\/p>\n

“David was really concerned and when we found out \u2026 [Sunday] morning, David felt so relieved, like a weight had fallen off him that he knows that his job is more stable than what it was a couple days ago,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Knowing that David can still go tomorrow [Monday], still enjoy the friendship of his friends, work there for four days a week \u2014 that has taken a lot off my mind.”<\/p>\n

Loan is conditional, government says<\/p>\n

It is understood Bedford employs more than 800 staff and supports 1,400 people living with a disability at more than 22 sites across South Australia.<\/p>\n

In exchange for the $15 million rescue package, the state government will take ownership of Bedford’s supported accommodation site Balyana, in Clapham.<\/p>\n

Treasurer Stephen Mullighan said on Sunday the loan and the transfer of ownership of the Balyana site were “a good way to structure this support, rather than just providing a cash grant with no recourse for the taxpayers in the future”.<\/p>\n

He added that there would be conditions imposed on how the loan was spent.<\/p>\n

“It won’t be a single deposit tomorrow of $15 million and then Bedford has free and unfettered access to it,” he said.<\/p>\n

Advisory and restructuring firm McGrathNicol has been appointed to work with Bedford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Stevens has been working at Bedford Industries for almost two decades, but in the past few days,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3092],"tags":[6580,109430,51,110070,110066,110067,110068,897,41512,110069,109431,16,15,110071],"class_list":{"0":"post-297083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-administration","9":"tag-bedford-industries","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-david-stevens","12":"tag-disability-employer","13":"tag-disability-workers","14":"tag-financial-support","15":"tag-jobs","16":"tag-loan","17":"tag-rescue-package","18":"tag-sa-government","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wayne-stevens"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114927833423969319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}