It's time to re-introduce unemployed single mothers to the workhouse

The 1601 Act for the Relief of the Poor (colloquially known as the "poor laws") created a proto-welfare state in Great Britain and one of the main tenants of this legislation was the workhouse (1) where the poorest in society were provided with food and shelter in return for an honest day's work. However, with the formation of the National Health Service and the Social Security Department after the Second World War the last of the workhouses closed as the state then provided a safety net for all citizens - guaranteeing them free housing, health care and a modest income should they become needy. Unfortunately, however, this system is now being seriously abused by perfectly able young women who prefer to rely on state handouts rather than go out and work for a living. One of the consequences of this is that Britain has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Western Europe (2). Here, young women know that if they are aged sixteen or over the Government is duty bound to provide them with their own house to live in together with a decent income so that neither mother or baby suffer any hardship. Indeed, unemployed single mothers are even entitled to free pamper days at private salons where they receive massages, facials and manicures at the taxpayers' expense. (3) In the light of the huge cost of this scheme, various right-wing think tanks have suggested abolishing the welfare state altogether in order to remove the incentive for teenage girls to deliberately get pregnant and become wholly dependent on the taxpayer for their general well-being. Apart from punishing the genuinely needy, the problem with this plan is, of course, that at a stroke hundreds of thousands of young mums and their children would be thrown onto the streets and expected to fend for themselves. Of course, some charities may step in to help but the enormity of the problem would surely be too much for them. There are around 500,000 young lone parent families in the UK and it costs the taxpayer ï¿½4,000 ($6,360 / EUR4,320) per month to support each of them (4),(5). This amounts to ï¿½1,200 ($1,900 / EUR1,300) per taxpayer per year which is far more than any NGO could ever hope to raise through voluntary donations. So, what's the solution? My suggestion is to re-invent the workhouse so that becoming reliant on the state is less attractive for single mums. In return for food and accommodation, single mothers would be expected to do an honest day's work in a factory attached to the workhouse while their children are cared for collectively in an in-house crï¿½che. But please don't think of this as a quasi-prison – it wouldn't be. Although the women and girls would be paid in kind rather than cash they would be free to leave if they either found a job on the outside or a partner that would be willing to financially support them and their children. So, the workhouses' inmates (or guests as I would prefer to call them) would be allowed to leave in order to attend job interviews and there would also be regular open-evenings held whereby eligible men would be invited to meet the women with a view to taking them and their offspring under their wings – think of it as a cross between speed-dating and choosing a pet at the dog pound. This scheme would be self-financing so would, therefore, save the taxpayer billions of Pounds every year and, in addition, it would reduce the number of kids brought up by single mothers whose only motivation in giving birth to and bringing their children up is the extra state benefits this enables them to claim. For these reasons I strongly affirm that it is time to re-introduce unemployed single mothers to the workhouse. Thank you. (1) http://www.workhouses.org.uk... (2) http://www.dailymail.co.uk... (3) http://www.dailymail.co.uk... (4) http://www.poverty.org.uk... (5) http://www.taxpayersalliance.com...