Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

How do we solve this if people hate benefits?

163 replies

is30tooyoungformidlifecrisis · 10/04/2025 10:34

I've been mulling this over for a while and really trying to avoid a goady post but I'm genuinely interested in what people think.

The reality is in the UK we have a rapidly declining birth rate and an ageing population, so in a decade we're going to be in trouble as a country.

On an individual level, people (that I see online) seem to be very anti-benefits for parents. I always see the line 'if you can't afford kids don't have them' etc. But the reality is that the cost of living is going up, childcare is up, housing is up, and if people literally cannot afford kids they won't have them and that's what we're seeing happen now.

On a wider society level, we need to encourage people to have children to keep our population stable, especially since politicians and the media have stirred up so much hatred towards immigrants so we can't rely on immigration to solve our population problem. The only solution I see is to increase benefits for having children and make it easier - eg. increase maternity pay, subsidise childcare costs, increase child benefit maybe in a means-tested way. But I think all that would go down like a lead balloon with people crying 'the government shouldn't pay for your kids, pay for them yourself' - but really, if the government have got the country to a point where it's a real problem, it's on them to sort it. What do you all think?

OP posts:
WittyRedPanda · 12/04/2025 14:50

@Sortalike your parents did not start full time work until they were 25 years old? That is unusual back then.
I am older and I and everyone I was friends with left school at 16 and started full time work. That was normal. My dad who is 81 started full time work at 15 years old. He retired at 65 years old so worked full time for 50 years. Someone starting full time work at 25 years old would have to work until they are 75 to work as many years as my father did.
One of the issues is that young people start work later than they did in the past. I would prefer a flexible state pension retirement age based on how many years you worked.

WittyRedPanda · 12/04/2025 14:51

Trumpsgoneloco · 12/04/2025 14:46

We need to get away from the population ponzi scheme being the answer to paying for the older generations as they get old. I am far from clever enough to work out how, but this needs to stop being the answer.

Would you stop immigration then?

I do think that the Assisted dying bill does need to come in though

realistically that is probably the answer.

So you want old people to be killed off when they no longer have enough money to support themselves?
Assisted dying is about being terminally ill, not needing a state pension.

Trumpsgoneloco · 12/04/2025 14:56

What makes you think that is my answer? Do I think governments will see that as a solution in some form? yes

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Benefits
Trumpsgoneloco · 12/04/2025 14:58

what do you think governments will see the answer as?

ruethewhirl · 12/04/2025 15:02

Lassango · 12/04/2025 14:42

We need to get away from the population ponzi scheme being the answer to paying for the older generations as they get old. I am far from clever enough to work out how, but this needs to stop being the answer.

I do think that the Assisted dying bill does need to come in though.

Edited

And would that be voluntary or mandatory? Just curious.

WittyRedPanda · 12/04/2025 15:06

It scares me how some younger people view older people. Just useless lumps of meat that have no right to live.

ruethewhirl · 12/04/2025 15:17

WittyRedPanda · 12/04/2025 15:06

It scares me how some younger people view older people. Just useless lumps of meat that have no right to live.

Don’t worry, they’ll change their tune when they’re older. Assuming they get to ‘older’, that is.

Nowimhereandimlost · 12/04/2025 15:18

Some countries are ahead of us on this curve and the reality of what an ageing population looks like is really depressing. See this excellent article https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/03/03/the-population-implosion

The End of Children

Birth rates are crashing around the world. Should we be worried?

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/03/03/the-population-implosion

Sortalike · 12/04/2025 15:27

WittyRedPanda · 12/04/2025 14:50

@Sortalike your parents did not start full time work until they were 25 years old? That is unusual back then.
I am older and I and everyone I was friends with left school at 16 and started full time work. That was normal. My dad who is 81 started full time work at 15 years old. He retired at 65 years old so worked full time for 50 years. Someone starting full time work at 25 years old would have to work until they are 75 to work as many years as my father did.
One of the issues is that young people start work later than they did in the past. I would prefer a flexible state pension retirement age based on how many years you worked.

My dad was just finishing uni when I was born, my mum was completing her training to be a nurse so the span of their working lives was 35 years (mum had a few years off until my sister and I went to school)

Dad was eventually a self employed contractor so again periods of time out of work. There were times it was tough in between contracts but ultimately they did well in terms of NHS pension and a combination of others.

They faced a different set of challenges: shortages in the 70s, the Thatcher Years, huge interest rates on mortgages, but equally it much much easier to buy a house. They paid £85k for our childhood home in 1986 and sold it for £495k 35 years later (I remember looking at a little 2 bed terrace in 2000 which was £34k, I could just about have afforded it, but talked myself out of it - hindsight is a wonderful thing).

iamnotalemon · 12/04/2025 17:35

2dogsandabudgie · 12/04/2025 13:00

I recently read a book where it was set in the future and the over 70s were not allowed to have antibiotics as a way of killing off the older generation.

Show quote history

@2dogsandabudgie

which book is that? Sounds interesting.

2dogsandabudgie · 12/04/2025 18:01

iamnotalemon · 12/04/2025 17:35

@2dogsandabudgie

which book is that? Sounds interesting.

Show quote history

It's called The Waiting Rooms, can't remember the author.

Trumpsgoneloco · 12/04/2025 18:47

@Nowimhereandimlost wowsers, thanks for linking that.

BrilliantLight · 14/04/2025 20:58

Rainbow1901 · 10/04/2025 15:32

There's a lot that will annoy people because the benefits system helps or bankrolls so many people. That we have a declining birth rate is probably not a major thing to some as the world is over populated as it is. Those who chose not to have children shouldn't have to support those who do - so if you want children then be prepared for the fact that you will probably struggle at times to support them and be prepared to go without yourself to do so. Been there and done that!
The baby boomer generation is now some ten years into them starting to die off (and I'm am part of that generation) so this will be correcting itself and reducing the population and feeding into the profits of the funeral directors who will do very well from this.
It isn't right that our taxes go to support immigrants who are not genuine asylum seekers. My own mindset regarding that is - if something is so wrong in the country of your home birth - then you should be fighting to improve your country - not decamping to a country to live off their benefits when you have left the women and children of your country to face this without you. Cowardice or laziness?? depends how you look at it?
People say that things are too expensive now and that not enough is paid in wages - it's always been that way!! My parents were not wealthy and my dad was a seaman who spent months at a time away from his family while he served in his career choice. I married and had two children and times were hard for us then - especially as my husband was prone to walking out of jobs leaving me as the main breadwinner. My children have children of their own now and even they find things difficult - that's life - and shapes the resilience (or not in some cases) of each and every generation. The circumstances may be different in each generation but no one generation has it easier than any other.
The difference now is that the benefits system has ballooned to the point that we now have a nanny state and people who won't go without their Costa coffee, tattoos, football club annual ticket, holidays - insert anything of your choice!! and expecting the state and everyone to provide it without any input from them by getting a job and paying their way.

Show quote history

You say those who don't have children shouldn't have to support those that do...OK then, as long as once the childless people are old they don't expect other people's children to nurse them, drive their buses, serve them food, deliver their post, etc etc

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread