Problem families are each costing the taxpayer an astonishing £75,000 every year, new figures reveal as David Cameron prepares to announce new sanctions against unruly families.
• The Daily Mail reports:
Two-thirds of the £9 billion isspent protecting children and tackling crime and that over half of kids with jailed dads will end up convicted
The report continues: Ministers have been horrified by research showing that on average £9billion is spent each year on 120,000 families blighted by jobless parents and truanting children.
More than two-thirds of this is devoted to protecting children – via social care and child support – and tackling the crime and anti-social behaviour such families often generate.
Police have said that in some cases it would be cheaper to have an officer permanently stationed at a family’s home than respond to constant call-outs.
The findings come ahead of a major speech later this week by David Cameron in which he is expected to announce new sanctions against such families – combined with what sources describe as ‘targeted resources’ – as part of his mission to tackle ‘broken Britain’.
Researchers devised a seven-point checklist of factors, with families that fulfilled five or more being designated as ‘problem’.
The criteria include no one in the family being employed, neither parent having any qualifications and being unable to afford certain basic food or clothing items.
The research reveals that teenagers raised in such families are 36 times more likely to be excluded from school than children in families with no problems.
They are also six times more likely to have been in care, while 63per cent of boys whose fathers are jailed will eventually be convicted themselves.
Downing Street’s determination to deal with problem families has been strengthened by the need to make deep cuts to local authority budgets.
One Whitehall source said: ‘We simply don’t have the money to spare. These families are a drain on local services, which could be much better directed elsewhere.
‘One local police force told us that it would actually be cheaper to have an officer permanently stationed on the family’s sofa than have to respond to the constant call-outs to the house.
‘We need to get kids back in the classroom, and to get parents off drugs and on to a work programme to stop them committing crime.’
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: ‘For too long, these families have been locked in a cycle of state dependency. Worklessness has been passed down from generation to generation.
‘Over the years, millions of pounds have been squandered on fruitless, unco-ordinated investment and we can no longer afford to foot the bill.’