OXFORDSHIRE County Council will announce an extra £1.6m to support troubled families in its budget today, the Oxford Mail has learnt.

It is understood the cash, to be announced at a budget meeting, has been found from savings.

It will be used to try to turn around the lives of about 800 troubled families.

Each is estimated to cost taxpayers £75,000 a year in state support, draining £60m of resources between them.

Under the initiative, council workers could spend up to 15 hours a week with families, trying to improve their parenting, cut truancy, tackle addiction problems and end unemployment.

The council’s acting director of children’s services, Jim Leivers, said: “Children may be the third generation that have never worked.

“These are families where maybe the mum has mental health difficulties, there might be persistent non-school attendance or refusal to attend school, issues around the misuse of drugs or alcohol.”

The Government is paying County Hall £100,000 a year until 2015 to help staff the project.

The council could get back up to 40 per cent of its £1.6m investment if it succeeds in cutting truancy, crime, antisocial behaviour and long-term unemployment.

County councillor Louise Chapman, cabinet member for children, young people and families, said: “Our county is a relatively affluent part of the UK but there are still troubled families here.”