[WillowTheWhisp]

On the one hand the government complains about 'latch key kids' and on the other hand they expect single parents to work. The words 'cake', 'have' and 'eat it' come to mind.

Foreign workers not interested in top-up benefits? You must be joking. There was a program on TV about how they are taught before they come here about all the benefits they can claim and they even get help filling in the forms if they can't speak English. The Eastern European workers don't have the same overheads as your average British family as has already been said. Their families are still living 'back home' but they claim allowances for them and sent the money back there (which gives them a higher standard of living as the money is worth more over there.) Meanwhile over here they are sharing flats and even beds at times with people on different shifts working and sleeping at different times. The cost of accommodation for them here, shared out between them, is nowhere near what it costs for a British family in rent/mortgage, gas, electricity etc.

Now look at it from the employers point of view. Who are they going to employ? A single foreign worker with no dependants here who is available whatever hours they are needed, or a single parent who may end up having time off if their child(ren) is/are ill? The employer will pick the person who in their eyes is likely to be more reliable. That's before you start talking about trying to find work to fit in round school hours and school holidays.

What is a single parent supposed to do with a 7 year old child during the school holidays whilst they are at work? I'm not even sure it's legal to leave a 7 year old child at home alone. If they burned the house down the parents would be accused of negligence.

And then as previously said, where are these extra jobs going to come from? People are being laid off, factories are gone. More and more people are out of work. Yet we allow more and more people into the country to fight for what few jobs there are. It's insane.