Councillor claims babies for houses..

[the agent]

A Naas Cllr is standing firmly by his claims that a small percentage of women in the town fall pregnant specifically to secure a local authority home

Darren Scully made the statement at last night's Town Council meeting

Two councillors, Mary Glennon and Pat Clear, both immediately dissassciated themselves from the comment

Cllr Scully added that he believes more education is needed to alleviate this problem.

But, he says, it would be unwise to ignore the reality that some women do become pregnant to attain a local authority home

This was on KFM radio today, is he right or wrong.

[meriwether]

W cant rule out that a small percentage of women do this.
Small percentages of people do really stupid things.
Small percentages drink and drive, sniff glue, have unprotected sex with strangers.

So its quite possible that some women do in fact get pregnant to get a house. It cant be disproved.

But I would wager that its such a ridiculously small percentage, its not worth talking about.
It certainly isn't worth bringing up as regards formulation of policy.

I dont have the context of what Scully said, but Im a bit puzzled by it so far.

[odie1kanobe]

Like its a shock ?

[Stíofán]

I think it might be a bit much to say women "get" pregnant in order to obtain local authority homes. But it is fairly common knowledge that a single mother is moved up dramatically up the waiting lists. It can lead to irrational decisions. A colleague is putting off marraige to her long term partner (and father to her children) in order to continue getting 'the one parent family benifit', as it's officially known, and to be eligible to buy her council house at a discounted price from the council scheme (I forget what that is called, I presume posters are aware of that schemes existence, where you can buy social housing from the council after X years renting).

[geraghd]

I think he is right, and refers to a very dangerous undercurrent that seems to be developing in society, where a dependency mentality takes wing in a subset of the population, and there is then in some cases a choice between going out to work, furthering education or whatever on the one hand, and getting pregnant, having kids and living off the state on the other.
I believe there was a pregnancy pact among some (UK?) teenagers a short while back which may be linked to this?
Queue some hyped up media over the comments, and some PC actions on behalf of some politicians (like Glennon and Clear) but it might highlight a worrying social phenomenon that we all are paying for dearly. Except those that are up the duff of course.

[Stíofán]

Small percentages of people do really stupid things.

It might not be that stupid. In our country, living off the state may be the rational thing to do, in that it would leave you with the most disposable income.

From an article in the Daily Torygraph:

The OECD found that, of all the world's major economies, Britain has the worst benefits trap for women. A single mother moving back into work would have to forfeit 101.3 per cent of the extra cash she earned because of the extra tax, childcare costs, and relinquished benefits payouts.

The calculations show that the situation is almost as severe for mothers whose husbands are working.

They face losing out on 89.5 per cent of their extra earnings, meaning that if they received a pay rise of £5,000 from getting back into work, they would only see £525 of the extra cash.

The OECD said that, of all its 30 member countries, the only one with a worse record in this area was Ireland.

[odie1kanobe]

I think it might be a bit much to say women "get" pregnant in order to obtain local authority homes. But it is fairly common knowledge that a single mother is moved up dramatically up the waiting lists. It can lead to irrational decisions. A colleague is putting off marraige to her long term partner (and father to her children) in order to continue getting 'the one parent family benifit', as it's officially known, and to be eligible to buy her council house at a discounted price from the council scheme (I forget what that is called, I presume posters are aware of that schemes existence, where you can buy social housing from the council after X years renting).

Time to get father to pay their share of child maintenance.

You want state to support you then father must be included on birth cert and he pay a financial contribution to his sprog.

Treat single mothers on same basis as married family.

[paperweight]

ITime to get father to pay their share of child maintenance.

You want state to support you then father must be included on birth cert and he pay a financial contribution to his sprog.

Treat single mothers on same basis as married family.

This comment just doesn't make sense - what are you suggesting???

[mairteenpak]

It is common place for people in Dublin who contemplating a life together often start their family some years before marraige.

Comparing the plight situation of two couples

John & Mary who marry and save for a home, start a family pay child care etc

and Robbie and Tina who start a family, rent a house, get the state to pay the rent, Robbie resides at his Ma's on paper, works hard and makes a good wage.

Robbie slips the landlord an extra €350 a month in cash as a live in with his girlfriend, after a while Tina gets a corpo house, which they buy after or before marriage. They then rent it out to another person in Tina's situation and buy a gaff in Ratoath, and go for scoops in the stand every weekend.

[myk]

A colleague is putting off marraige to her long term partner (and father to her children) in order to continue getting 'the one parent family benifit', as it's officially known, and to be eligible to buy her council house at a discounted price from the council scheme .

if she is living with her partner she is not entitled to social welfare benefits for single mothers.