It IS wrong but i have to say i dont blame them for "working" the system.

he can;t afford to go out to work and keep that lots.......

do i blame them YES i had 2 kids cos thats all i could afford

I havn't had time to read all the replies. But want to say please don't tar all single parents with the same brush.
I was married with 2 sons age 6 yrs and 4yrs and we were buying oour own house, my husband had just started up his own electrical buisness, when our pony was stolen and my husband was killed trying to rescue it.
I was left alone with my boys in a remote area (only 2 buses a week) and unable to drive. No one told me of any help I could get and I lost my home and ended up homeless.
So I was eventually given a council house after being in temporary accomodation.
As my sons grew up my eldests girlfriend got herself pregnant to try and keep him, when it wouldn't work and the baby was born she for various reasons didn't keep her so I took her at 1 week old. We did then get given a 3 bedroom house.
When she was a little older I went back to work and through a mess up with benefits ended up in quite a bit of arrears with rent and council tax. My sons had at this point moved out, the youngest was married and the oldest living with his new partner.
I offered to give my good size 3 bed house up for a smaller 2 bed house for a bigger family, but they keep saying I don't need to move as I have housing adeqate to my needs and they can't move me with arrears.
How stupid is that when I am paying off arrears by direct debit monthly that would just continue if I moved, and another family will be desperate for a larger house will get one.
So you see not all us single parents have children to get a home, I would much rather I didn't have to struggle as I do to make ends meet, and I would much rather have my husband still alive with me.
But yes I am a single mum, who is not with anyone still, so yes unfortunatly I do get tarred with the same brush as do others in similar situations.
Yes there are scroungers out there, plenty of them but there are also us that have ended up like this through no choice or fault of thier own.

I would never look down on single mothers, my own mum was one for years. I know just how hard it is, it's nothing to be scoffed at. The issue is that there are a lot of young women out there who are actually planning to have kids, just because they know they will be housed for free. These are the people, along with the others that just don't want to work that annoy me.

I too am benefits so this is my side.

I worked from leaving school for a pittance of a wage £3.20 an hour til I was 18. I had my first son and after that became terribly ill. I had my 2nd son in 2005, whilst on sick. I cannot work but I am looking, I am forcing myself back because of some of the comments I get from people. Sad but true that others condone folks for not working when they don't know the whole truth

I know what it's like to be a single parent through no fault of my own. It's bloody hard, but we struggle through to give our kids the best we can afford.

As Madmare has posted, there's people that screw the system, but don't tar all of us with the same brush. There's more genuine single parents than there's spongers. Please give them the credit they deserve. I've been lucky enough to meet a fantastic man and get out of the system, but it doesn't make me any better than people bringing up children on thier own in social housing.

I know someone whose partner died when she was four months pregnant.

She went on to have a boy, was given a two-bedroomed house and benefits to live on so that she could bring up her son.

She has never met anyone else.

I can't see what else she was supposed to do really.

I know the system is far from ideal and people do abuse it.

This is exactly the reason that the welfare state exists...to help people who find themselves in difficulty through circumstances outside of their control. There but for the grace of god go any of us...

OMG! If there are young women out there who think that they'll get a better deal out of life by having kids and claiming benefits, then they're either disturbingly badly informed, or their prospects in life are disturbingly low. Either way, that's a failure of the society we live in, not just those poor, uneducated girls.

I also have to question what this thread has to do with the parents being single. There are single- and two-parent families living off benefits, and there are single- and two-parent families entirely self-supporting. Having been brought up by a single woman - a full-time teacher, financially independent, and a real pillar of society - I fiercely resent the assumption that single mothers must be anything less than I know my mum to be.

VV, while I appreciate that your situation must be pretty tough, I don't really see what it has to do with this poor, maligned woman in Gloucester. You've worked hard for what you own, and that's great. Do you think you should be offered a bigger place to live while still owning the flat? Or do you think that this woman and her kids should have to live in a 1 bedroom flat when a bigger house is available, just because other people get by with it?

Of course housing stock is better and more readily available in some places than others and it's a shame, but that's the way life is in this country. You can't really compare the situations in different areas on equal terms. And of course families have to housed as a priority - we have a responsibility to protect the vulnerable in society, and kids are pretty much at the top of the list. And finally (then the rant's over ), why, why, WHY is a pensioner any less deserving of a place to live than any other person???