The Tories just don’t get Scotland
Some of the likely consequences of David Cameron’s nasty little idea to abolish housing benefit for under-25s are bad in general. For instance, people with abusive parents will find it hard to get away from them for much longer.
Also, if it was removed for everybody, including people with children, it could lead to some unfortunate kids being raised in extremely cramped conditions; on the other hand, if young parents still got it, it would create a strong incentive to get children at too young an age to be allowed to leave home.
However, whereas these consequences would be the same everywhere, the idea was clearly conceived in the London area, where it’s more or less feasible to commute from any home to any workplace. However, a significant number of people live in very remote places in Scotland, such as the Highlands and islands. For many young people from these areas, it’s essential to be able to move away to get an education and a career. Preventing them from leaving their parental home until their 25th birthday would completely undermine this. (See also Andrew Page’s take on this.)
It just shows again how many English people — and especially the Tories — simply don’t understand that Scotland is different. It would be such a relief to know that the Tories couldn’t impose their nasty ideas here. Just another reason to vote Yes in 2014!