Stef Pruski turned on Radio 4 on the morning of 5 August 2015 to hear the news that she was to lose her job by 7pm that day.  Kids Company, the £23m-a-year youth charity headed by Camila Batmanghelidjh, was to close amid a spending controversy, vague sexual abuse claims, and one of the biggest media storms of that year. 

That spelled the end of Pruski’s eight-year stint as a key worker with some of the most deprived young people in London.  Since then, Pruski has applied for more than 150 jobs and been invited to only one interview. 

She is not alone in this, as many ex-employees say they are finding it impossible to get work. 

“I had an interview a couple of weeks ago, and I felt like I was there so that they could ask me about Kids Company.  I can understand curiosity and I can understand if you want to ask constructive questions, but they said, ‘Kids Company had lots of negative press – how do you feel about that?’  and I was like, ‘well, it wasn’t the best day of my life.’  What am I supposed to say?” 

Nearly two years down the line, Batmanghelidjh – the charity’s divisive matriarch-cum-chief executive – is about to publish a book, Kids, telling her version of the charity’s 19-year existence.  A new musical is to be staged in the West End over the summer, with lyrics drawing on a transcript of the three-hour questioning of Batmanghelidjh and Alan Yentob, the charity’s chairman of trustees, by the Commons public administration committee in October 2015.  The Charity Commission is to publish a report on Kids Company’s failings.  Throughout the controversy surrounding the closure of the charity, the dedication and good work of its 650 employees has always been acknowledged.  Tarred by what is now seen as a toxic brand and concerned that the story is about to be dredged up again, some former staff have spoken out about the circumstances they have been left in. 

Staff and supporters protesting against the closure of Kids Company outside Downing Street in August 2015.  Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA

“Kids Company used to have someone come from the jobcentre as a drop-in to give clients advice.  And now we’re going to the jobcentre ourselves, in the same situations we were trying to get our clients out of,” said a former employee who asked not to be named. “ People have lost their homes.  People are massively in debt.” 

That former employee is still working with a young man who was involved with gangs in Camberwell, south London, and was moved out to another part of London by Kids Company in order to start a new life. 

“When Kids Company shut down, he couldn’t make the rent, so he had to move back.  I just watched him go back into that gang environment.  I’m doing what I can to contribute, to help him, so he’s not jumping the barriers at the station when he comes to meet me,” he said. 

“I’m on benefits myself and things are not easy.  I don’t want him to return to crime, so I’m doing the best I can, but I haven’t really got the means.” 

His situation is far from unique.  Despite being in dire financial straits themselves, many key workers are still supporting their former Kids Company clients without being paid.  Pruski said: “I had the number one most notorious young person from the day I walked in, and I’m still in touch with her now, nearly every day.  The young people just needed to know that for me it didn’t end the day I stopped getting paid.  If we stopped, we’d be compounding everything they think already about anyone who comes into their lives: that they don’t really care.” 

“The sword of Damocles came down on us that day,” said one ex-volunteer who mentored young people. “ You would never just drop a child.  They’ve all got too many issues.  It was just the opposite of everything that Kids Company had worked towards.” 

I wish there was still support I could get now ... If it weren't for them I would probably be in jail Former client

Equally, former clients have found that they have been left with no one to turn to.  One ex-client, now 25, said: “A lot has changed since the close of Kids Company.  To be honest, I live in a lonely world.  There are not many people I can trust.  So, I had that trust in Kids Company people.” 

During her eight-year relationship with Kids Company, she was encouraged by her key workers to set up her own business and train to become a qualified accountant. 

“I wish there was still support I could get now,” she said. “ I was arrested when I was a teenager.  Throughout this period, I was on the roads with the boys and Kids Company was engaging with me and gave me lots of support.  I was getting therapy.  They helped me make the right decisions.  If it weren’t for them, I would probably be in jail for a lengthy period of time, to be honest.  That’s the path I was going down. 

“It just takes time to understand a person.  And now that I’m grown I know it was the amount of time that people invested in me – the key workers at Kids Company, who brought about that change eventually in me.” 

For now, ex-employees are still waiting for their payout.  An employment tribunal involving more than 100 ex-employees remains unresolved regarding loss of notice and the question of redundancy payments. 

According to Pruski, it has been going on since two weeks after Kids Company closed. “ I gave evidence at the tribunal a year to the day of when we closed.  I was like, ‘happy anniversary everyone,’” she said. 

Sue Foster, who managed Kids Company’s confidential filing, said: “I hadn’t been paid for the previous four months of working when Kids Company closed, there was no money.  I still haven’t been paid anything.” 

At a time when cuts to social care are looming large, ex-Kids Company staff are not alone in their financial struggle.  Pruski said: “Our sector, the youth sector, is being cut to within an inch of its life anyway.  No one has any money.”