To think it is ridiculous that a woman with 11 kids is getting a £400,000 house for nowt

[angelos02]

Especially when most working people couldn't never afford to live somewhere costing that much?
Link: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2280385/Home-fit-dole-queen-Mother-11-gets-BRAND-NEW-400-000-house-built-council-shes-struggling-current-homes.html

She first got pregnant at 14 FFS, what kind of opportunities do you think she had or could take after that?!? What do you think her social circle was like, her in his twenties boyfriend of the first pregnancy ended up in prison.

Where is the fucking COMPASSION?!?

Why would anyone not wish to defend 11 children in that predicament?
Attacking children is still a criminal offence.

We should stop playing goodies and baddies and get the family housed sensibly.

I meant for adults - sorry

I like my policies. I'm not a liberal, I'm a liberal Tory but I believe in helping people to help themselves through education, skills, work. To see healthy people languishing for years out of work is soul destroying and needless. Community work - all work - gives purpose and dignity and raises self esteem.

The present system DOES reward poor choices and is seen as horribly unfair. We need to protect children whilst empowering their parents through work, paid or otherwise.

Redwing I am biased, honestly it's a touchy subject and my words about it may be offensive, I don't mean it to come across like that.

I do have compassion but mainly for the children, she would have had many opportunities over the years to train/have family planning advice/psych therapy.

I completely defend the children though.

where is the father(s)? why is the woman taking all the flack? it takes two people to make a baby. i would imagine with 11 children childcare options are pretty limited, the father(s) should be working to secure these children a decent life.

i would like to say i am surprised at so many supposedly intelligent women falling for daily fail clap trap so easily, but sadly i am not.

this woman had her first baby when she was a child. there should have been a system in place to ensure that, as children, she and her first born were properly cared for and educated and given the same opportunities as any other child. society failed her on this and now we are vilifying her with no thought for the subsequent children and the effect this will have on them. i wonder if we will ever learn?

of course her children should be housed safely. they should also be given extra support and educational opportunities or else history will repeat and no one will gain anything.

there are not loads of jobs btw

redwing of course she scuppered her opportunities by choosing to have a baby at 14.
She may very well NOT have chosen to become pregnant but she did choose to have and keep a baby. Thousands of young girls make different choices to enable them to HAVE opportunities and a future. She then continued to have child after child after child.

Again, Secret, please can you clarify exactly what benefits are really rather generous? I work for a local council and worry that my job might not exist in the not so distant future. I would like to know what these generous benefits are so I can make sure I claim for them all.

secret at no point did I ask you to apologise. What a bizarre thing to say. You've worked hard and earn a decent salary, good for you. Nothing in that reply to me is even slightly relevant to the point I made. The fact is LP's do not bring home anything like the equivalent of £40k and it's extremely damaging to say they do. Simple as that.

The economic situation in this country at the moment is frankly terrifying, but I can assure you it wasn't caused by people like this poor woman. Everyone in the country should be bitter about the situation we are in but buying into DM and government propaganda just plays exactly into their hands.

Divide and rule. Keep the people at each other's throats and they'll completely miss the reality.

Schro, really sorry to hear that. You're right, it is an absolutely bonkers system x

so the system is 'rewarding' her 11 kids for being born? maybe any civilised society would rather house children than have them living in shanty towns or on the streets

Mable None are generous, even for people who are disabled.

ah so should she have been forced to terminate her pregnancy?

Divide and rule. Keep the people at each other's throats and they'll completely miss the reality

Yes. It always amazes me so many fall for it tbh.

Aunt Maud:

You might not be aware but under Universal Credit (which replaces Tax Credits) the taper (the amount of benefits reduced per £1 earned) is increased from 37p to 65p. This absolutely will effect full time workers.

Its a real myth that Universal Credit will remove the benefit trap and help people who want to work.

Also- I don't think I mentioned education- you might be thinking of another poster there.

In general I do agree with your policy suggestions though.

I'm just stunned at the victim blaming on here.

This is a girl, a child, who had her first child at 14. Most likely she was pregnant at 13. To a 23 year old.

Just stop for a second and absorb that little fact.

Then consider how a child who had a baby at 14 was so let down by social services, her family, the police and society at large, that she was not removed from that toxic situation or protected from the paedophile who got her pregnant in the first place. How did a child who had her first baby at 14 come to the conclusion that having more babies was a valid, if not the only, path available to her. What happened to her schooling? What happened to the father(s) of her babies? Did they support her?

Yet nothing in that article leads me to assume she is a bad mother in any way. She's done the best with the only real option she's ever had. Those children deserve a home, somewhere they can be safe. Would you deny them that?

gordy now how did I guess that would be a Guardian link ?

Secret It's fine, I just don't like it when the parents of these children are completely defended, they do have choices and they make bad ones. Even if that is a bit later in life.

I would defend the kids to the end of the world though.

"ah so should she have been forced to terminate her pregnancy?"

I do not agree with that. Proper help should have been in place to get her on her feet and support her as much as possible.

Auntmaud does that make is lies then - seems fairly fact based and truthful to me regardless of source - unless you know otherwise it seems an accurate reflection of job seekers V job vacancies by area in the UK

Mable:

Income support
Housing benefit
Child tax credits
Council tax benefit

Plus:

Nursery placements (I'm not talking about the 15 hours free for children 3 and over, I mean nursery placements paid for so the parent can study)
Free school meals
Free prescriptions
Maintenance for all white goods if you live in a council property (that's true around here, not sure about elsewhere.)

I didn't say it made anyone rich, I said it was generous, adequate. Which it is,

gordy where did anyone suggest termination? She made a choice. With that choice came one way of life, with a different choice another. But why should those who have made very different choices have to pay for hers?

I believe that everyone should support their own children but I'm aware that makes me a Workhouse loving right wing bastard around here.

I know, SchroSawMargeryDaw, but Secret keeps repeating that people on benefits are loaded.