Unholy Alliance of Ashton Job Centre, New Charter and Tameside Council join together to bully single parents.

A worrying report concerning Ashton Job centre, the local council and New Charter Homes, a registered Charity, has come to my notice in the Morning Star. For more check here. 

Under the very "Common Purpose" sounding title of "Troubled Families Wave 2 Joint Investment Agreement" the Job centre offer a social worker to an unemployed single parent to 'help them' get a job. The council provide the social worker. they are committed to assisting 1750 families for which they receive £1000 per family. Thats £1.75m in total.

The government also provides a "results fee" of £800 per family to an agency which is working with the family. And guess what? The local agency is New Charter, the job being given to them WITHOUT TENDERING.

Two "Troubled families" advisors will be employed by Tameside within the jobcentre.

There is an underlying, sinister, tone to this plan. ANY member of the 'troubled' can be called for interview. The close working relationship between private industry and government is pure corporate fascism, while the holding of the whole family to account is pure Stalinism.

As for training, one is reminded of THIS article in Tameside Citizen  http://tamesidecitizen.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/potential-tenants-under-go-training-to.html

There are serious aspects of civil liberty here. The linking of unemployment with being a troubled family. The implied threat that an unemployed person will lose their children to the council. The mis-use of personal data.

And 1750 new  families is a lot of new work for the social workers..... or will numerous 'old' families be used to pad the figures and gain the £1.75m for the council?

There is a history of Ashton being used as the trial run-out area for new plans, universal credit for example. This may be happening in Ashton now but the rest of the country tomorrow.