Unemployment and parental conflict are key causes of problems for disadvantaged families, work and pensions secretary Damien Green has said.

A £215m package has been earmarked for the 'troubled families' programme originally launched five years ago.

The government says 185,000 families have so far benefited from the programme and 400,000 will receive support by 2020.

Analysis by the Department for Work and Pensions published this week says joblessness is often a key factor making people 'considerably more likely to experience problems with their relationships, have poor mental health and be in problem debt'.

Mr Green told a national newspaper that failure to secure work was often at the root of the families' problems.

He said children in workless families were almost twice as likely not to reach the expected level at all stages of their education.

'A child’s chances in life shouldn’t be defined by the background they come from,” he said.

'Two of the big problems we need to solve are children of workless households who need more help and children whose parents are in conflict whether or not they are together.'