The £250,000 question

“We estimated that each family was costing something like £250,000 a year from public sector interventions that were not changing behaviour. They need a personal worker who helps them to get up in the morning, get breakfast and get the children off to school.”

This quote from Hazel Blears in her interview with Alice Thomson and Rachel Sylvester in today’s Times suggests that Blears is thinking of a series of radical steps when it comes to dealing with the problem of hardcore worklessness and totally broken families. She also floats the idea of modern-day version of the ‘mother-baby homes’ that used to be run by nuns.

Again, the government seems to think that the economic downturn is actually providing political cover for tough reforms of the welfare state. Blears says, “People have got to the end of their patience with people having a free ride and not doing their bit. In the current economic situation everyone has to pull together and work together.”