I think people forget just how much families who choose to not work are subsidised.
I'll give you an example. DH has a friend who is in his forties. He has never really managed to hold a job for longer than 3 - 6 months, has dropped out of multiple courses, and received multiple handouts from the state, family, and friends (including offers of house deposits, employment training, and living abroad). He doesn't lack opportunities or ability, not at all, he's just lazy and would rather spend his life on the dole, smoking weed, and fantasising about business ventures that he expects everybody else to fund and do the work for. Your common-or-garden scrounging waster.
He meets a bird. She already has a council flat because she got pregnant at 18 and has a kid. Great, he can just move in. They decide to have a family. They are both on the dole and have two kids back-to-back while on the dole. They get given a new build 3 bed house because her now her wee council flat she got for having a baby as a teenager isn't big enough for the next two kids she has in her twenties.
Now, I have this controversial viewpoint that people have a moral duty to try and provide for their children as best they can. People can disagree.
But when I think of how much tax my husband and I have paid to fund an extended maternity leave that will last for years, their rent every month, every joint they have smoked, the building of their new house, literally the shirts on every member of that family's back - all of it. It actually sickens me. We both work hard and have budgeted extensively so we can afford one child because we care deeply about providing the best environment.
They, on the other hand, have chosen to do nothing to provide for their family or to better their situation. They fully expect - and have the audacity to demand - that their entire family is paid for by the state.
Why are the middle class expected to be sensible but nobody else? Do we think "certain" people are inherently unable to understand the fundamentals of contraception and budgeting? If yes, isn't that offensive? If not, are we putting systems in place to provide that education? Or is it to do with an element of life expectation? In which case - I am perfectly, perfectly happy to put an end to any expectation in this society that you are entitled to have your entire family funded for by the state just because you personally choose not to work. It's an abhorrent attitude.
This is not about luck, or circumstance, or tragedy, or anything else. For many this is fundamentally a lifestyle choice. And there's no point complaining about the low birth rate and society/the economy because I count two economically inactive non-tax paying people having three children that due to lifestyle factors, poor parental education and expectations are extremely unlikely to be productive members of society. It is far more likely that by the time I retire out of our two households my sole child will be paying the tax burden for four retired people (my husband, myself, and this couple) and three people on the dole (this couple's kids). Throw in a few grandkids as well because why not.
This is also deeply unfair and feels punitive to people who work hard in life, succeed, and plan families responsibly. There is no help for you, most of my income when I go back to work will be spent on childcare and tax. I am going back to work to afford childcare to fund another woman who chooses to stay at home.
And in this economy, where so many people are working their fingers to the bone, and where both state and family funds are running low - I don't think we have any moral obligation to fund this lifestyle expectation that you can have a family and choose not to work. Contraception is readily available and free. Accidents happen and so do abortions. You have a choice of who you have children with - all these men on the dole who don't pay up? Well, somebody is shagging them too!
So I'm quite happy for that extra bit of money to not go into a couple's drink/drugs/nonsense personal spending account and for it directly to go to breakfast clubs, after-school clubs, uniforms, childcare during the holidays, etc. Then I might actually see some direct benefit myself for all of the tax my household pays.