Plans to extend free school meals

[Boro.Fur]

I bet no one dares to say that you shouldn't have kids if you cant afford them

The Tories do.

 

[BoroBosco]

Taking around 100,000 kids out of child poverty in time is great news

Though it will undoubtably be of benefit to the children and their families, it won't have any affect on the child poverty figures because they are based on household income.
Despite the families having £500 a year more to spend they will not be receiving any extra income so will still be classed as being in poverty.

 

[Hicktonpen10]

This is what I want our politicians spending my money on instead of Chagos Islands and the like.

 

[Redwurzel]

Its really shocking that a family income has to be less than £7,400 to qualify for free school meals - that's 25% of the average pensioners income

If £22,000 a years is deemed a Living wage what's £7,400?

 

[Nano]

Its really shocking that a family income has to be less than £7,400 to qualify for free school meals - that's 25% of the average pensioners income

If £22,000 a years is deemed a Living wage what's £7,400?

That's not what it is. 25% of kids get free school meals and it's not 25% of households that earn less than £7.4k.

The £7.4k is income on top of benefits (average UC for couple with a child is £15k but I presume it is location dependent).

The £15k plus £7k brings it up to the living wage equivalent.

 

[JackG]

Great news this, going to be hard for anyone to have a whing about this, but lets see if any of these crop up

I'm waiting for:
It's going to be spent on immigrant kids
We should be spending that money on cannons to fight the small boats
It's not going far enough, we should give every kid free meals
What about people with no kids, what are they getting out of this
Why aren't we funding the kids meals in private schools, the kids at Eton must be starving too

What, no turkey twizzlers?

 

[asredastheycome]

This is what I want our politicians spending my money on instead of Chagos Islands and the like.

Chagos Islands was already signed up before the current government got in

 

[SilentProf]

It’s great for the children and as an added bonus, a lot of potential Reform voters will see a direct benefit from it. Even more if the two child cap is ended. The Labour strategy seems to be to get the difficult decisions done early in the hope the benefits will be seen by the time the next election is due. Hopefully that proves to be the case.

 

[Hicktonpen10]

Chagos Islands was already signed up before the current government got in

I know I wasn't making a party political point it was a general comment.

 

[Redwurzel]

That's not what it is. 25% of kids get free school meals and it's not 25% of households that earn less than £7.4k.

The £7.4k is income on top of benefits (average UC for couple with a child is £15k but I presume it is location dependent).

The £15k plus £7k brings it up to the living wage equivalent.

Nano - once the couple have paid rent and council tax on a 2 bed property - there will be only be £7.4k left.

 

[Huddboro]

A great idea that will be another disaster for schools. After working in education for 20 years can’t understand why things aren’t funded properly. Difference between FSM (at around £2 odd) and meal at school is around £1 per child per day. If you’re got significant numbers of FSM children it could cost up to £2k a month out of school budgets- not funded by the government.

 

[Nano]

Nano - once the couple have paid rent and council tax on a 2 bed property - there will be only be £7.4k left.

I'm not defending it. Just explaining it. If you have a minimum wage job and no benefits then you are in the same position which is where the justification from equalising them in terms of receiving free meals comes from.