Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that resources are being wasted on underserving scrubbers

758 replies

rezbites · 20/01/2011 10:12

It makes me very angry to think that deserving parents, like Riven and her partner, are being denied the help the help they so clearly need when there are others in our society who are bleeding the system dry and giving nothing back. Please let me explain what I mean.

Where I live (and in other parts of the country too, I'm sure) there is a certain "underclass" of young women - you know the ones I mean - little scrubbers who clearly model themselves on Vicky Pollard - who are provided with everything by the State. They have not suffered abandonment, divorce or bereavement. They have not been made redundant or struggled to find a job - they have never tried to get one. They have chosen to become single mothers, straightout of school in many cases, so that they qualify for social housing and benefits to live on, claiming that they cannot work because they have a child. They think the world owes them a living and it is their right to claim all these things. I do not mean to suggest that they are typical of single parents or council tenants generally because I know that they are not. They are a feckless, but very visible, minority.

Why should the country waste resouces on these selfish, irresponsible deadbeats who have chosen that lifestyle, at the expense of people in genuine need of help - the disabled, the vulnerable and those who through no fault of their own have ended up in very difficult circumstances?

OP posts:
HettyAmaretti · 20/01/2011 10:14
Biscuit
StarlightPrincess · 20/01/2011 10:19

YANBU. I have to live next door to one. The police battered down her door with a battering ram last week because she (an alcoholic) had been threatening her partner (a heroin addict) with a knife in front of her 4 year old and newborn. They've both never worked a day in their life, blast their music from 8pm until gone midnight, and get everything paid for by the state- it makes me sick.

LifeIsButtercream · 20/01/2011 10:24

YANBU to find it frustrating, but please be careful of generalisations unless you are very hungry for Biscuit

On paper I am an overweight single parent on benefits, dig deeper and I'm a DV victim from a broken marriage, with PND and PTSD who gave up work to move 300 miles to be closer to my family, one of whom has cancer and another has dementia.

I can see where you are coming from though, a friend of mine has a sister, who has just had a baby. Infact, seven of this sisters friends have also had babies within 2 weeks. They left school last year, and were not predicted good GCSE grades, so decided to get pregnant. This is from the horses mouth, she proudly states so on her Facebook page.

Hopelesslydisorganised · 20/01/2011 10:29

Too many generalisations in the OP - everyone has a story and a history behind what happens in their lives - some have no support apart from that which the state provides (ie financial) which is not the be all and end all.

FreudianSlipIntoMyLaptop · 20/01/2011 10:29

OP has very clearly stated that she is not generalising, so put those biscuits back in the tin!

reelingintheyears · 20/01/2011 10:32

So we withold resources/benefits and punish the children of these 'feckless' mothers/scrubbers?
Underclass of young women eh?
What about the Fathers?

StuffingGoldBrass · 20/01/2011 10:32

Sigh. Are you really, honestly sure that your anger wouldn't be better directed elsewhere? Like, maybe at the bankers' bonuses, the CEOs of companies that routinely practice tax avoidance in order to increase shareholders' dividends?
Or maybe - and here's a thought - you could spare some of it for the men who impregnate women and fuck off without paying a penny.

ThePosieParker · 20/01/2011 10:32

OP....You forgot to mention the fathers of these babies, these 'scrubbers' are having. What does scrubbers actually mean? Having sex?

These women that can think of nothing else than to have a baby to push around have been failed by a society that convinced them that they couldn't do anything else.

reelingintheyears · 20/01/2011 10:40

Scrubbers?
FFS.

TanteRose · 20/01/2011 10:41

Undeserving scrubbers? Nice...Hmm

MinnieBar · 20/01/2011 10:44

Scrubbers?! Misogynistic generalisation much?

LittleMissHissyFit · 20/01/2011 10:44

I suppose with the media interest running high, we are going to have to put up with a lot of these kind of threads for a while aren't we?

SecretNutellaFix · 20/01/2011 10:48

It's not just the girls who need to be more responsible- it's the idiotic blokes who have sex and walk off. Who refuse to acknowledge or provide for their offspring.

Society as a whole needs to change, but without the children suffering for the mistakes or otherwise of their parents.

The tone of your post was a bit Hmm, so I think that's why the Biscuit tin was broken out.

TheBeast · 20/01/2011 10:51

It is very easy to criticise the benefits system in this way but what would you suggest as an alternative? That these mothers (and their babies) sleep rough and beg?

You also do know that youth unemployment is running at 20%, so the likelihood of these people being able to find a job is very low?

DameShirleyKnot · 20/01/2011 10:52

I wish I could look at someone and know everything about them, everything about their past and what they think and what they say and what they do.

Hot Dog! I could make a fortune!

thenightsky · 20/01/2011 10:54

The fathers are equally responsible as the 'scrubbers'... what name shall we give them? Hmm

YANBU about feeling angry on behalf of Riven though.

realrabbit · 20/01/2011 10:54

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

auntyfash · 20/01/2011 11:00

Of course YABVVU and you know it!

KnittedBreast · 20/01/2011 11:00

oh do fuck off. what pisses me off is the wealthy getting away with being undeseserving scrubbers (inherited wealth anyone?) prime example- the royal family.

You are forgetting that actually they do have the right to claim all that they do. Its perfectly legal, if you object morally join the tory government and rid the world of this scum.

Your last sentence could just as easily be used to describe the rich.

Daily mail or sun reader by any chance?

BeerTricksPotter · 20/01/2011 11:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

auntyfash · 20/01/2011 11:03

And IF these young women are choosing to have kids at a young age and live off the state as a lifestyle choice, then you have to wonder why. Society has let them down in some way is my guess, so yes, lets demonise them and punish them further. Pfft.

Alouiseg · 20/01/2011 11:04

You are not being unreasonable at all! i can think of one divorced woman whose ex husband provides her with rather more than the average wage yet she claims Job seekers allowance and housing benefit!

Lizzylou · 20/01/2011 11:06

Scrubbers, deadbeats, underclass?

Nice Hmm

TheVisitor · 20/01/2011 11:06

These children who have children and claim benefits are normally from a family where no adult works and no expectations for their children to do well. The leaving school and getting pregnant to them is the norm. Just to clarify one of your points though - they don't just get handed council houses. What is needed for these children is education and social intervention, so they see that they do have choices. What they don't need is some nice, "middle class" mother sneering down her nose at them and calling them scrubbers. How rude of you.

auntyfash · 20/01/2011 11:06

That's ONE person Alouiseg! Jeez! I know a bloke who killed his girlfriend, so therefore it's fair to say that all men with girlfriends are killers.

Swipe left for the next trending thread