The other day, I followed the press conference by Minister Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca about the misuse of social services and I got thinking about the misconceptions some people have about the use of such services by single parents.

Down the years, I heard many people saying we should not provide single parents with social services because they have made a decision to be sexually promiscuous and, therefore, they should take full responsibility for their actions.

I do not agree with this stand, first of all because I strongly believe that it is not true that most single parents have multiple partners and/or have a children for the sole purpose of getting social benefits.

Furthermore, the expenses and consequences, especially on young people who end up being single parents, are far greater than the social benefits given for such a purpose.

As a result, I believe that if there is a group of people that the taxpayers should not be asked to pay for it is those who abuse of the system by applying for social services without not really needing them.

Hopefully, with a new system to manage social services we will be able to cut such abuse.

But, most of all, I honestly hope that this episode helps us to think further before pointing fingers at a minority group like single parents because, sometimes, it is easy forus to judge other people with-out thinking about the pain we are causing.

Generalising, in my opinion always leads to misconceptions and, therefore, we should always tread carefully before doing so.