Before everyone on here spontaneously combusts with rage, the article says she was specifically talking about 'yummy mummies' who marry rich men and put their energies into raising children rather than concentrating on their careers."

And there is a case for saying that in those circumstances it's probably wise to have some degree of self-sufficiency.

I work with genuinely poor, destitute people and I get somewhat tired of hearing a lot of moaning (I'm speaking in general - not attacking anyone here) from many who are not, by any stretch of the imagination actually 'poor.'

Along with many of you, I'm worse off than I was but I try and keep a sense of proportion about it. And as someone who even on a low income was never entitled to the range of tax credits that were handed out under the last government, what you never had you don't miss.

There are tens of thousands of people who fall into what the Joseph Rowntree Foundation call the 'hidden poor' and they are the ones who have never been a priority, regardless of whether Labour or the Tories are in power.