AIBU to think that this is just wrong?

[HiddingMyIdentity]

A girl I know, lets call her K, recently had a baby. K has just turned 18, and she was living with her sister and nephew. K and baby clearly had their own room judging by the 500+ photos she shares on shapchat daily.

K just shared a photo of her new house keys. Apparently for her and baby, government funded of course as K has never worked a day in her life.

Ireland are having a massive homeless crisis, hostels and hotels are full to the brim with families, and K a few weeks after her 18th birthday gets given a house??

I work 50 hours a week, and had to move county to afford to rent a house. Yet this one pops out a kid at 17 and gets handed a house, that I and all the outer tax payers of Ireland are paying for, as her 18th birthday present from the State!

There are families out there in much worse living conditions than K, who have been on housing lists for years, why should she get a house ahead of them??

Is it just me who thinks that this is wrong?

Sorry I needed a bit of a rant!

Do people not read the Op ?

How is the mother a dimwit? confused

You have to ask?

@donelikeakipper my solution is within the handup period they must engage in training and work placements to improved their employability. So at the end of the handup period they can be gainfully employed taxpayers who can pay their own bills and contribute to society instead of draining it. Your solution is that we reward them by providing free houses (because unless you’ve earned the money to pay the market value rent, it’s free or heavily subsidised by the taxpayer). You want to penalise workers and reward spongers. If they fail to meet targets, then they move to a hostel - actions have consequences, and i see no reason why someone whose sole contribution to society is breeding should be better off than someone who gets up and goes to work. Taxes could be better used for healthcare, caring for the elderly and disabled, supporting veterans / military, border security and policing.

@NotTheQueen how would a single mother be able to do training though if she has no childcare??

Hopefully once she's got a few hours free childcare in a few years she can start some education or part time work again and find a term time job whilst child is at school. Being a TA is a great career and doesn't need too many qualifications these days.

She would be silly to get pregnant again though so hopefully she'll be careful about that.

Goady fuck, do you really think she's living a wonderful life? A single mother on benefits at the age of 18 is the last thing most would choose to be. I feel for her.

@donelikeakipper and @ihatemyselffordoingthis actually no I didn’t - no one knocked on my door and said here’s a job. I went out and found one. I stayed late unpaid to improve my skills, then moved to a new job. I kept doing it, then I worked full time and went to college and university at night. You both prefer a system that takes from the hardworking and rewards the feckless.

NottheQueen, your post feeds into the myth of worklessness (which has been conclusively proven to be a myth - I can give you links, if you like), and your use of the word 'spongers' is highly offensive to anyone who has ever had to claim social security benefits. The vast majority of people are taxpayers at some point in their lives and the vast majority want to work. How do you expect the mother of a baby to 'engage in training and work placements'? And why do you consider her a drain on society when she is bringing up a child - a child who will doubtless contribute to society, as the mother will when she is able. Should only people who are financially self-sufficient have children? That would mean that many of the people who have contributed most to our society would never have been born. Aneurin Bevan and Charles Dickens immediately come to mind, but there are many, many more.

Someone whose sole contribution to society is breeding – Kate Middleton? Meghan Markle? Better off than someone who gets up and goes to work – how many new mothers do this?

I hope that you will reconsider your post because it is riddled with tabloid myths. If you would like to know the truth about the welfare state and poverty in Britain, please look at the websites of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Child Poverty Action Group. You won't find any tabloid hate mongering there but you will find well-evidenced facts about benefits and single mothers.

The money gonna run out soon.Then there's gonna be so many to share not much.

@anxiousbundle in Ireland children receive 15hrs per week of free childcare from the age of two and half until primary school regardless of income. Then there is subsidised after school care for low income families

they must engage in training and work placements to improved their employability. So at the end of the handup period they can be gainfully employed taxpayers who can pay their own bills and contribute to society instead of draining it.

Ok, and what happens when the single mother will few skills cannot find employment that pays all her bills and for childcare? What happens on the days her child is ill and she has to take days off, risking her employment? Or she herself is ill? Why are you deliberately missing the point that a life on benefits is not a long term choice for anyone? Why do you think life on benefits is one people aspire to be on - risking living in a bad area, not knowing if your next payment will be cocked up and leaving you utterly penniless for a month, being judge for a situation you would never have chosen for yourself?

If they fail to meet targets, then they move to a hostel - actions have consequences, and i see no reason why someone whose sole contribution to society is breeding should be better off than someone who gets up and goes to work

You’d have a small child be homeless because his mother had him young and not in employment? As for ‘that person who gets up and goes to work’ - you have no idea what tomorrow can bring, how very very quickly circumstances can change. Get in an accident, made redundant, divorce and your husband goes AWOL leaving you unable to keep a roof over your head - everyone in life in one step away from ‘being a scrounger’, and not everyone can’t get out of it. The high levels of homelessness at the moment is evident of that.

no one knocked on my door and said here’s a job. I went out and found one. I stayed late unpaid to improve my skills, then moved to a new job.

Never given a hand by anyone ever? Not a bursary for college, money from parents? Are you also a single mother who needed to think of who would take care of their child whilst also being the obvious superhero of work that you are?

If you truly got through life without anyone ever having to pick you up in some way when times were bad, very well done. You are an extremely rare breed in life.

You have to ask? confused

Yes, please enlighten me. How is this woman a dimwit?

no one knocked on my door and said here’s a job. I went out and found one.

No-one knocks on anyones door and says here’s a job! 😂 anyone who is working or has worked went and looked for their job. Unless they were headhunted, but they weren’t head hunted from their sofa you sound like an idiot.

In fact even plenty of people who arent working are out looking for jobs.

I bet you'd like to see the Magdalene laundries back, OP. Shame on you.

OP, I’m with you and the posters attacking you and accusing you of begrudgery are quite probably overburdening social housing with their own poor life choices.

No, it's possible to be kind to people who are in entirely different circumstances to you. This is commonly known as "empathy". You might give it a try some time.

anyone who is working or has worked went and looked for their job.

Yeah, and how does looking for work usually go for single, low skilled mothers?

‘So you’ll need time off during summer and Christmas, have to be constantly on a call in case something happens to your child and can’t do any short-notice overtime/extra shifts. And you expect a living wage with few qualifications? Oh yes, we’d love to employ you’.

I'm glad we live in a country that strives to ensure a stable housing situation for children and other dependent people.

Would you rather the children of mothers without a job or a means of income ended up on the street or in homeless hostels? Some already do.

People always seem to have a story of someone they know getting a council house who they believe is undeserving, often without having the whole picture. I'd rather a few 'undeserving' people got access to social housing, than see a family homeless.

Why not channel your angry energy into retraining and getting a better paid job, rather than bashing some poor single mother who happened to get a mediocre house so she could safely raise her baby.

OP, I’m with you and the posters attacking you and accusing you of begrudgery are quite probably overburdening social housing with their own poor life choices

I'm a doctor and my partner is a fund manager. I can venture an educated guess that we pay more towards benefits than the OP.

Exactly done. I’m self employed now (because that’s the only way I can manage single parenting of a child with SEN and not be sacked) but I learned early on to lie in interviews and say I had childcare and back up childcare because otherwise they just won’t even consider you. Get the job first, sort childcare later. Unravel at a later stage. Start the process again.

Would you rather the children of mothers without a job or a means of income ended up on the street or in homeless hostels? Some already do

Maybe they want them single mother house things brought back too. A stint in the workhouse too to get some work done.

It's possible to be kind to people who are in entirely different circumstances to you. This is commonly known as "empathy". You might give it a try some time.

This.

OP, I’m with you and the posters attacking you and accusing you of begrudgery are quite probably overburdening social housing with their own poor life choices

No, actually, have our own house thanks and always have had

bought not have

Cheap rent in social housing? My social housing rent is double what my old mortgage was.

It's funny though - a few people have mentioned her age. You do realise that a few decades ago, people got married and had babies at 16-18 and that was the norm. Were all the wartime parents terrible people too, then, for having babies at a young age?

Still waiting to hear why the lady in the OP is a dimwit.

Funny too, how the goady as fuck OP has disappeared.