All true, but I think the oddest thing about this is the belief that large numbers of people set out to have children while ~expecting~ to be on benefits. As if pregnancy-related discrimination wasn't incredibly common. As if relationships didn't break down, and absent parents never forgot about child support. As if a rather large number of people hadn't already been, and weren't about to be, made redundant.

I suppose it's true that it's (mostly) a choice to have children. But losing one's job, one partner/s, one's home or any combination of the above generally isn't a choice, and people can't retrospectively unbirth their kids when their financial support vanishes.