The potential savings

The cost of poverty to the Exchequer is estimated by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to be £69bn a year for public services with a further £9bn of which derives from lost revenue as a result of people not fulfilling their potential in the labour market.

The Early Intervention Foundation has estimated the costs by the state of late interventions for children and young people as nearly £17 billion per year in England and Wales and also provides a breakdown by geographical areas.

Various studies have estimated costs in particular areas.  For example:

·      the NAO in its 2013 early action landscape review estimated annual savings for earlier detection of diabetes was £170million.

·      The Allen Reviews of early intervention (Early Intervention: the Next Steps, published in January 2011 and Early Intervention: Smart Investment, Massive Savings published in July 2011) present  evaluations of a number of Early Intervention policies to show that they can generate excellent returns on investment, and that overall the Early Intervention approach offers better savings than the alternative approaches of doing nothing at all or continuing with existing policies.

·      In the Government’s Prison Safety and Reform November 2016 White Paper, the Secretary of State for Justice estimated that “the revolving door of crime and prison costs society £15bn a year.”