The big lie : 120,000 families who cost £9 billion a year

[TalkinPeace2]

There is no empirical evidence that these families or this amount exist.
Why is the government putting so much emphasis on it?

Who? What?
no idea what you mean

Is there a link?

Is it something to do with this?

m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/sPcb3l2qyI3BjDR9T9vbEUQ/view.m?id=15&gid=commentisfree/2012/jun/11/tory-vilification-poor-child-poverty&cat=most-read

I can't link because am on phone, but More or Less (Radio 4 stats programme with, if anything, a rightwing slant) debunked this number in enormous detail a couple of weeks ago.

The 120,000 figure is a) pretty unreliable b) several years old c) relates purely to very deprived families - not problem-causing families at all. It's utter bollocks.

fullfact.org have got a useful breakdown of the stats on their front page.

It really wouldn't surprise me if the figure was correct. It's £75,000 per year, per family. If the family has one member in prison and several on benefits, the cost easily comes to that amount. And I know plenty of familes with several in prison and with no-one that works.

I am suspicions of these numbers too.

And also this that dilys said "relates purely to very deprived families - not problem-causing families at all".

Dilys - I heard that programme too. It was really shocking. Now that the figures have been exposed as an outright lie, it's amazing the government keeps repeating it. Their nerve is amazing.

the criteria are crap too. We fit 5 of them. And given dd is disabled and her education/medical/etc cost a fortune you could, if you were the DM, use families like ours, with a disabled child, exhausted parents who are carers and cant work etc as 'examples' and add those costs to that inflated figure.
Constant demosniing of the poor

YY

These are the criteria to make you a "problem family" - if you meet 5 of the 7 you are costing the county an arm and a leg (subtext feral children etc etc)

No parent in the family is in work
? Family lives in poor quality or overcrowded housing
? No parent has any qualifications
? Mother has mental health problems
? At least one parent has a longstanding limiting illness, disability or infirmity
? Family has low income (below 60% of the median)
? Family cannot afford a number of food and clothing items

I can see with 5 of those you will be struggling a lot but what has that to do with crime etc.

Eric pickles quote "Not only are these families destroying their own life chances but they're destroying the lives of their children".

Nice.

It's true though. Having children when you have several of those criteria is downright irresposbile.

Christ on a bike, so if you've the misfortune to have mental health issues, a chronic illness, have an unemployed husband and be poor (presumably as a result of the above), you're being held responsible for this state of affairs by Mr Pickles? L overly.

If you have all that, and then choose to have children, then yes.

Yikes a less than a year ago we met 5 and yep we probably do cost quite a lot if you add social care, NHS costs, benefits, education costs, housing ect ect (though it won't be anywhere near £120,000 a year - I wish, my socail care package and NHS treatment would be gold plated!)

Though I have an HND, my partner used to work as a college tutor and is trying to retrain and eventually gain a degree. We both hope to go back to work and work around my disability and our family. Bearing in mind I have had no independant movement for nearly 3 years and am only just on the waiting list for electric wheelchair training - and that was by total lucky accident - it's not so easy to be self reliant in these circumstances. Had I recieved better treatment on a number of occasions in the last 18 years we would not be in the situation we are in now, we have both fallen through a number of cracks in the system and done our best to conform within it, but the cracks kept getting bigger till we fell through to the very bottom of the safety net. Where we are now finally getting things sorted and yes costing a lot more money than we ever should have done. Grrrrr - don't people think we'd rather have had our efforts turn out sucessfully than be in this bloody position.

Well it's easy to flippantly announce that these unlucky souls should be more responsible so the rich can stay rich but it's a distasteful sentiment. IMO anyway.

Is this about Philip Green & bankers bonuses again?

Sorry haven't read the thread.

'It's true though. Having children when you have several of those criteria is downright irresposbile.'

You are a tad ignorant. Having a disabled child CAUSED all 5 criteria. We both have qualifications and dh works (part time cos of caring needs). Before the event we were decent earning, looking to buy a decent house blah de blah. Could happen to you tomorrow Josephine.

Tax evasion. That costs us billion.

Bloody tax evaders in their offshore tax havens! ..etc

I work as a sort of specialist support worker in the community.
I have been ordered to identify 'problem families'
Looking at some of the criteria my own family could be classed as such and probably will be by someone else working in my LA.
Cameron can kiss my tax paying, benefit claiming, resources using arse.
I have never left my kid in the pub and I have been working longer than him. Tosser.

Chickenlickn - are you referring to Vodafone and Amazon?

I see "problem families" every day and their problems are of their own making. Until it is made absolutely clear to them that what they are doing is wrong and they face stiff sanctions unless they buck their ideas up, and they get it into their heads that these sanctions WILL be followed up on, the problems will contiune.

So much for a 'transparent' goverment

At one po