To think that resources are being wasted on underserving scrubbers

[rezbites]

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?

I like the thought of a workhouse - but a humane, modern one, with counselling / advice / childcare / nursery / further education etc attached. A springboard rather than a dustbin.

What a hideous bigoted patronising ignorant op

YANBU.

Sadly there has been a paradigm shift societal attitudes to the Welfare State. It is no longer a safety net to help people in times of exceptional crisis, or at the end of their lives. A life supported by state handouts is now a choice and, that awful word, a 'right'. There is no longer shame and stigma attached to this dependency. And anyone who objects to the infantilisation of our population via welfare is shouted down as being uncaring or illiberal.

It's a sad state of affairs. I'm not sure what the answer is but I do know that other countries (Scandinavia in particular) are not in quite the same horrendous situation, so it would be instructive to find out why.

I agree, they can only be called scrubbers/deadbeats/losers and they drain our society it annoys the hell out of me. Get a job and stop breeding!

Thanks dame ,i have just spat coffee down my top ,it better come out or i shall be sending you a bill for dry cleaning

I find the language you use insulting (scrubbers) and sexist as it ignores the fackless fathers. However, some of the sentiment I agree with. But I am talking very specifically about a group of people who won't work not those that can't work.

I have a family member who let's just say didnt have the best start in life. She missed alot of school and in my view is poorly educated. She rather predictably fell pregnant at 15, baby born 2 months after her GCSEs finished at 16 and she has lived on benefits since. She has been given opportunities to go on courses with free childcare but always finds a reason not to do it. Her DD is now 10 and it is heartbreaking to see how much that bright girl full of potential is ground down by the poverty and lack of amibition demonstrated by her mother. It's almost contagious. I have as much involvement as I can (its very complicated) and hope she breaks out of this cycle but all the statistics suggest she will follow the same path. My DN was brought up to believe living off the state was expected, that she would get a council flat and not to be ambitious as that wasn't for her. She is now teaching her own DD the same thing just by being that example. How can she not when its all she knows? There is a vicous cycle in place whereby one generation teaches another to be part of the system and nothing will change until that cycle is broken. How to do it is another issue.

Why is it that the single mums are complained about; Why don't the fathers get a job and provide for their kids? If they don't want to be fathers then why not use contraception - simple really.

You can't shut the stable door, but perhaps there could be some sort of law that you are unable to have a lease on council/social housing property if you are, say, under 25. If people knew in advance that no matter what, they were stuck living with their mother I'm sure that this would have some impact on their lifestyle.

Give Deserving Scrubbers Footballers Wages!!!

I'm curious how you can tell which girls are "scrubbers"? Do they have to wear a badge?

Gramercy -I don't agree with that idea. Me and my partner are both under 25, we have a council flat, but he works and we pay our rent and council tax with no state help- why should we be punished and lumped in with the lazy ones who don't want to get off their arse and work?

I still do not understand why the anger and frustration is placed squarely on the shoulders of the women who have borne these children.

I do accept that there will be some women who are not sure who is the father of their children. but surely they have got to be an extremely small minority?

What would happen if men were forced to support their children? If, as another mnetter once said, men had 2 choices: pay at source, either through salary or JSA, and for the men that refuse to work or claim JSA to avoid supporting their children, they can be thrown in prison.
Ok, I agree this would not really work, especially the prison bit, because I am aware we have an overcrowding problem in our prisons, but just what if?

Wouldn't a tougher approach on feckless fathers encourage fathers to think twice before impregnating a woman unless he had every intention of supporting his children? That way, you may have solved this problem, instead of dealing with the consequences.

My XP doesn't pay a penny towards his DD. He loves to quote his rights but is sadly lacking in his responsibilities. Anytime I have ever asked him for maintenance, he always replies with:
'You get money from the govt for DD and besides, you've reported me to the CSA so if I pay you anything now, when the CSA catch up, I'll have paid twice and I'm not doing that!!'

By describing people such as myself as 'scrubbers' , how does that resolve the situation I am in now?

It takes TWO to make a baby, why is it always only one of those people who is criticised (sp)???

Thinking about it, my mum was a single mother and we lived in the council house. AND me and my brother had a SNES AND a SEGA Megadrive. And we're talking late '80s here, when a games console was a rare thing to see in a house. And my mum went to the pub at lunchtime when I was at school having my free education and she used to have half a lager with a dash in a slag's glass.

I'm a scrubber child :(

Where would they live then? And if my dd gets pregnant at 17, I get punished by having to find room for her baby until it is 8?

What a f*cking stupid idea.

Nice to know the OP would have had you starving and homeless then bupcakes.

It takes TWO to make a baby, why is it always only one of those people who is criticised (sp)???

Agreed, but maybe mothers criticised more because they are the ones that claim money and demand a council house?

We look on powerless to intervene as an overclass of bankers living on state support collect billions in bonuses.

We look on powerless to intervene as an underclass of single mothers living on state support collect billions in benefits.

I'll do it for you, Reality

You ought to be ashamed. Ashamed, you hear me?

I once had a cleaner. In fact I twice had a cleaner. But they both buggered off after a while . One of them failed to turn up for 3 weeks in a row without any warning or explanation. I was miffed. i think she was an undeserving scrubber - although she was more of a vacuumer and duster than a scrubber.

who let that scrubber reality in? shouldn't she be in a workhouse or summat? she'll bring the tone of the place down. get her out before anyone sees her. don't want it rubbing off.

I want a slag's glass.

Reality rubbed up against me once.