News this week that the population of the UK is steadily growing towards the much predicted target of 70 million. So what can we do about it?
Well, the simplistic answer of course is to put a halt on immigration, encourage repatriation and stop breeding like it's going out of fashion. I want to talk about the practicalities of the latter...
The government wants to reform the welfare system. One aspect of this is the proposal to lower the age for which child benefits apply from the current 7 years to 5 years. The argument is that this will encourage single mothers in particular to start looking for work two years sooner. But will it?
I don't think so. In fact I believe that it will have the exact opposite effect and will make things worse.
When the welfare state was first invented, the single mother was a rare thing. There was a social stigma to have a child without being in a stable, married relationship. The current system is therefore labouring to keep pace with a phenomenon which its founding fathers could never have envisaged. The social stigma is gone. Nowadays nobody bats an eyelid at bastard children. It has become socially acceptable.
The other night John Humphreys did a program on the BBC about welfare reform. He spoke to single mothers in Liverpool which has twice the national average of single mothers. The first thing that was clear was that many single mothers want to work but see no point because even if they could find the job, then the cost of child care would destroy any financial advantage.
But there were also single mothers who regard the state as having a responsibility for their children. This is a situation made worse by the last Labour government in its much publicised stunt of 'eradicating child poverty'.
Lowering the entitlement age will simply encourage these women to breed more children sooner so that the benefits continue, thus adding to the benefits bill and exacerbating the population growth problem.
What needs to happen is a change in social attitude. Breeding children out of wedlock - for which in this age of readily available contraception there is frankly no excuse - needs to become about as socially acceptable as smoking or letting your dog crap on the pavement...
2 comments:
Hi Dioclese. How's the cruise going?
Just to join in with in your "ruminations". When my cousin was "up the duff" in 1958 it was like the end of the World.
One small point that we generally miss with the "hand-out" generation, that we seem to have become, is the concentration on the "lower-end" of the pecking-order. If you're way down on the social ladder you are fair-game as a target. Whereas all the main beneficiaries for social welfare hand-outs from the Royal family down are hardly ever mentioned. When it comes to population explosion it never mentions "upper-echelons" being at fault.
Think of all the social miss-fits with their hands constantly outstretched ........ politicians and judges just name a couple. Don't even get me started on European Members of parliament. The people who never seem to do a proper days work but expect plenty of dosh from the public purse. Non of these people have ever thought of getting a proper job because they'd lose so much benefit.
When we get rid of all these free-loaders then Britney and her mates with their scrotts can be targeted. After all they are only following the example of their "betters".
There is something to be said for the Victorian system where you either worked or starved. The problem is these days that there are so many of us that we can't just ignore the 'disaffected' minority.
I think most people would like to work given the opportunity but as one bloke said on Humphreys' broadcast "Why should I go to work 40 hours a week when I can get just as much on benefits?" so I suppose there is always one.
In the USA they have a welfare system now where the first priority is to make the applicant persue work, otherwise no welfare cheque. Not sure if it's the answer, but we watch with interest.
The only thing that is certain is that we can't go on as we are.
(Oh, and the cruise is next week)
Post a Comment