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    Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

    Brown may have cancelled his Sun subscription but he still seems to be going for the Express/Mail readers.

    The quote in bold interests.If he was on OTF, I would definitely bewanting to see his workings for this.

    As usual, the thought of putting more funding into education earlier in these girls' lives doesn't come into it.

    Most teenage pregnancies unwanted, says Gordon Brown

    PA

    Wednesday, 30 September 2009

    Gordon Brown today said he would prefer teenage girls not to get pregnant, claiming the vast majority of the pregnancies were unwanted.

    But he appeared unable to say how many young mothers would be affected by his proposal to put them in supervised accommodation if there was not a family member to look after them.

    Yesterday in his keynote address Mr Brown unveiled the policy aimed at preventing young parents from automatically getting a council home.

    The Prime Minister said it was not right that a 16-year-old girl could "get pregnant, be given the keys to a council flat and be left on her own".

    Instead, he told the Labour Party's annual conference in Brighton, groups of young mothers and fathers would be taught responsibility and how to raise their children "properly".

    Quizzed about the policy on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Brown said there were 20,000 teenage pregnancies every year and they were unwanted "in almost every case".

    He would prefer a family member to be able to look after a 16 or 17-year-old parent but if that was not the case and they wanted benefits they would go into hostel-style accommodation, which "seems to work".

    He said: "We think there is about 20,000 teenage pregnancies every year. They would have to make a choice.

    "We would prefer people who are teenagers ... we would prefer them not to become pregnant because these are unwanted pregnancies in almost every case.

    "The second thing is we would prefer a mother or a parent or a family to take care of them.

    "But if that is not the case and they are coming to ask for taxpayer support, at the moment because of housing need with a young child and being homeless they can get council accommodation in some cases."

    Mr Brown added: "About two thirds of those who get accommodation from the Government or local authorities go into council houses. I don't think that is right because they are living on their own and they are living in a way that doesn't change their lives.

    "There is a third at the moment who go into hostel accommodation - that seems to work."

    But asked how may young women that was, Mr Brown said: "We think at the moment two thirds go into council houses and we will have to make provision for the extra houses but that again is costed in our budget.

    "It is cheaper for us in the long run not to have to build a social house at £60,000 and provide accommodation in a centre or a foyer for less than that."

    #2
    Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

    "It is cheaper for us in the long run not to have to build a social house at £60,000 and provide accommodation in a centre or a foyer for less than that."
    Is this not the intersting part?

    Yeah, this is fucked up. THey problem I have with the "teenage girls get up the duff just to get a house" bunch is that, since they can't fucking work, young single mothers NEED social housing more than almost anyone else.

    This hostel stuff doesn't seem right to me. Is that my ingrained british individualistic prioritising of self determination over the wellbeing of the state, or is it actually as bad as it sounds?

    Comment


      #3
      Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

      Yeah, this is fucked up. THey problem I have with the "teenage girls get up the duff just to get a house" bunch is that, since they can't fucking work, young single mothers NEED social housing more than almost anyone else.
      Why can't young single mothers work? (Assuming said hostel had childcare facilities.)

      Comment


        #4
        Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

        Stumpy Pepys wrote:
        Yeah, this is fucked up. THey problem I have with the "teenage girls get up the duff just to get a house" bunch is that, since they can't fucking work, young single mothers NEED social housing more than almost anyone else.
        Why can't young single mothers work? (Assuming said hostel had childcare facilities.)
        Yeah, that's why - childcare is expensive(I didn't see a stipulation for free childcare in that proposal, although it may be there), and from what I understand it's pretty bad for a kids developmental needs to be seperated from his/her mother in the early months of childhood.

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          #5
          Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

          Unworkable nonsense, of course.

          I was also intrigued by Brown's intention to crack down on Britain's "50,000 most chaotic families". Is there a chart? And if I was in the 50,001st most chaotic family, surely now would be the time to go properly fucking mental.

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            #6
            Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

            E10 Rifle wrote:
            Unworkable nonsense, of course.
            Why?

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              #7
              Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

              Most arent in own council houses in their earliest time but at parents' home. What's the point of them being in a hostel instead?

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                #8
                Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                Stumpy Pepys wrote:
                E10 Rifle wrote:
                Unworkable nonsense, of course.
                Why?
                Look, he said 'of course'. What more do you want?

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                  #9
                  Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                  Taylor to thread.

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                    #10
                    Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                    Well, to whom would fall the task of dragging recalcitrant teenage mums into hostels? How would it be administered and assessed? How would their own home situation be examined? Would teenage parents who don't claim benefits or social housing be excluded altogether from this great moral crusade?

                    Still, perhaps Brown can get some ideas to flesh this policy out from the only other political party to have thus far floated it - the British National Party.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                      I was also intrigued by Brown's intention to crack down on Britain's "50,000 most chaotic families". Is there a chart? And if I was in the 50,001st most chaotic family, surely now would be the time to go properly fucking mental.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                        Well, to whom would fall the task of dragging recalcitrant teenage mums into hostels? How would it be administered and assessed? How would their own home situation be examined? Would teenage parents who don't claim benefits or social housing be excluded altogether from this great moral crusade?
                        How have you managed to inflate removing the automatic right to a social housing, for a certain group of people, into visits from what sounds like the secret police? Why does anyone have to be dragged into hostels?

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                          #13
                          Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                          Aye. Whatever you think of this policy, it's not a case of "let us round up all ze single mothers und put zem in hostels", so much as "given that we are obliged to provide accommodation for single mothers who request it, let's put them up in a hostel rather than giving them houses."

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                            #14
                            Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                            But someone somewhere is going to have to make a value judgment about whether a teenage mum 'has a family member able to look after them'. Someone is also going to have to administer the hostels and do the 'educating on respoonsiblities' alluded to. Who is going to do this, and how, and what form will it take?

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                              But someone somewhere is going to have to make a value judgment about whether a teenage mum 'has a family member able to look after them'.
                              It's self-selecting. If someone has the family support to look after their child, they won't be going to the housing office asking for accommodation. If they do as for support, they get offered a hostel place. If they refuse that, then that's their choice.

                              Someone is also going to have to administer the hostels and do the 'educating on respoonsiblities' alluded to. Who is going to do this, and how, and what form will it take?
                              The same people who run similar facilities at the moment. Local authorities, religious groups, not-for-profits and charities.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                                There's also excellent potential - if supported (and I know that's a big if) by the right services - to avoid cyclical ghettoization of the poor. If the environment is supportive of young mums, perhaps there'll be group daycare, child-rearing classes, substance abuse counseling (if that's a concern), household management, cooking, etc, which may all be completely absent from a straight-up council flat situation.

                                The last thing a 16 year old needs is to be by herself with a newborn, dropped out of school with no job prospects and no support services. She's going nowhere from there.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                                  I was talking to my mum about this (coming from an E10esque position) and she - as a liberal social worker working with children - said basically the same as in WoM's last paragraph. She doesn't like the prescriptiveness, but that not only do young mothers left to fend for themselves often struggle to cope (understandably enough) but also that those flats tend to become magnets for all sorts of problematic activities. I assumed that the case would be even more acute in hostels, but not always apparently.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                                    E10 Rifle wrote:
                                    But someone somewhere is going to have to make a value judgment about whether a teenage mum 'has a family member able to look after them'. Someone is also going to have to administer the hostels and do the 'educating on respoonsiblities' alluded to. Who is going to do this, and how, and what form will it take?
                                    Social workers make hard judgements like that all the time. More than a few families will be known to them already. Compared to taking kids into care this seems relatively stress free.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                                      The last thing a 16 year old needs is to be by herself with a newborn, dropped out of school with no job prospects and no support services. She's going nowhere from there.
                                      How about funding the support services?

                                      Children who go into and stay in care are, by and large, fucked and, I have to say, these hostels don't strike me as anymore than a care system for teenage mothers.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                                        Well, children who go into care are ones for whom no suitable adoptive or foster parents can be found, so they tend to have serious issues to deal with. And obviously being grouped with other kids in the same situation doesn't help.

                                        These hostels don't seem to be as much of a last resort.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                                          The hostel would offer support, I presume, funded partly by savings on housing.

                                          I wonder about all such mothers and kids being together though.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                                            Well, the obvious analogy would be a hostel for women who are escaping domestic violence.

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                                              #23
                                              Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                                              Some might argue that there are quite sizeable differences between being impregnated and being beaten up. That one involves an actual criminal act being one of them.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                                                She's going nowhere from there.
                                                Except the Jeremy Kyle show. I swear, every single story this month has involved someone aged 13 to 17 having a baby.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Schoolgirls getting knocked up for council flats

                                                  E10 Rifle wrote:
                                                  Some might argue that there are quite sizeable differences between being impregnated and being beaten up. That one involves an actual criminal act being one of them.
                                                  Well, the analogy was to illustrate women in a hostel environment with children.

                                                  Comment

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