"There are thousands of individuals and families in the UK living troubled lives blighted by crime, worklessness, and truancy. Worklessness can be a particular issue for some of these families and helping them get and keep a job can be vital in turning their lives around, bringing improved structure and stability with increased aspirations and confidence.
“Work can also enable parents to act as role models for their children, as children growing up in workless households are more likely to experience worklessness themselves. Jobcentre Plus advisers will now be working with families to offer more targeted support to those who have been failed by the system and where no-one is working or there is a history of worklessness across generations.”
Notes to editors
1. Troubled families are defined as those who:
- are involved in youth crime or anti-social behaviour;
- have children who are regularly truanting;
- have an adult on out-of-work benefits;
- cost the public sector large sums in responding to their problems, an estimated average of £75,000 per year.
The Government is committed to turning around the lives of 120,000 troubled families by 2015: getting children back into school; cutting youth crime and anti-social behaviour across the whole family; putting adults on a path back to work; and cutting the costs to the taxpayer of tackling their problems. Full details of the Government's payment by results framework for troubled families can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-troubled-families-programme-financial-framework
2. Under the joint DCLG-DWP agreement local authorities will be asked to share information with their local Jobcentre Plus about families who they have identified as part of the Troubled Families programme. Jobcentre Advisers will then know which benefit claimants are receiving support through the programme and adopt a coordinated local approach to dealing with the whole family. The 94 local authorities with the most troubled families will be offered up to six fully-funded Troubled Families Employment Advisors, seconded from their local Jobcentre Plus, according to the number of troubled families they have in their area. In total, these areas have committed to turn around over 80% of the 120,000 troubled families in England. The remaining 58 local authorities with fewer troubled families will be offered a single point of contact within Jobcentre Plus and given practical support to promote the employment agenda in their area.
3. The figures from local authorities on progress within the first year of the Government’s Troubled Families programme in regard to families 'identified' and families being 'worked with' have been collated from the latest quarterly returns submitted to DCLG's Troubled Families Team from all 152 upper tier local authorities in England in December 2012. These do not constitute official statistics. The data in regard to families 'turned around' has been collated from data submitted by upper-tier local authorities in January in support of claims for result payments under the terms of the financial framework for the Troubled Families Programme. Full details of these returns can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/troubled-families-programme-progress-by-december-2012