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NICE TO SEE THE COALITION IS ALREADY TRYING TO ENTRENCH POVERTY
The coalition government is to scrap Labour's plan to extend free school meals to primary school pupils from low-income working families, in a move anti-poverty campaigners claim could saddle poor families with the equivalent of a £600-a-year tax hike.
In the Pre-Budget Report, the previous administration had pledged to extend free school meals to around 500,000 children in families with a household income of below £16,190 - initially piloting this scheme for up to 50 per cent of eligible pupils from this year. Free school meal entitlement currently ends when a family moves off employment benefits into low-paid employment.
Schools secretary Michael Gove revealed that the new Government would not honour Labour's pledge in an open letter to shadow schools secretary Ed Balls setting out how his department would make its £670 million contribution to the £6.2 billion deficit reduction plan announced by the Treasury last month.
The letter said: "I am committed to reviewing all the department's spending in order to ensure that we are not making unaffordable promises for the future, and that spending is focussed on priorities that best support the coalition government's two primary educational objectives - raising standards for all and narrowing the gap between rich and poor.
"I have therefore decided that we will not be able to proceed with the additional free school meal pilots or the extension of free school meals to larger numbers of primary schoolchildren this year."
Child poverty campaigners have hit out at the decision, claiming that suspending the support for these families is equivalent to subjecting them to a £600-a-year income tax hike.
Imran Hussain, head of policy, rights and advocacy at the Child Poverty Action Group, said: "The support of free school meals would have lifted 50,000 children out of poverty, the Treasury has said. Suspending this support is the equivalent of at least a one per cent income tax hike per child for the families it was meant to help.
"We were told by the work and pensions secretary that it was wrong that families trying to move off benefits face effective tax rates of up to 95 per cent, so we are stunned the Government is shelving plans to address this problem. It is completely at odds with the coalition's commitment to end child poverty by 2020. The decision must be urgently reviewed."
The coalition government is to scrap Labour's plan to extend free school meals to primary school pupils from low-income working families, in a move anti-poverty campaigners claim could saddle poor families with the equivalent of a £600-a-year tax hike.
In the Pre-Budget Report, the previous administration had pledged to extend free school meals to around 500,000 children in families with a household income of below £16,190 - initially piloting this scheme for up to 50 per cent of eligible pupils from this year. Free school meal entitlement currently ends when a family moves off employment benefits into low-paid employment.
Schools secretary Michael Gove revealed that the new Government would not honour Labour's pledge in an open letter to shadow schools secretary Ed Balls setting out how his department would make its £670 million contribution to the £6.2 billion deficit reduction plan announced by the Treasury last month.
The letter said: "I am committed to reviewing all the department's spending in order to ensure that we are not making unaffordable promises for the future, and that spending is focussed on priorities that best support the coalition government's two primary educational objectives - raising standards for all and narrowing the gap between rich and poor.
"I have therefore decided that we will not be able to proceed with the additional free school meal pilots or the extension of free school meals to larger numbers of primary schoolchildren this year."
Child poverty campaigners have hit out at the decision, claiming that suspending the support for these families is equivalent to subjecting them to a £600-a-year income tax hike.
Imran Hussain, head of policy, rights and advocacy at the Child Poverty Action Group, said: "The support of free school meals would have lifted 50,000 children out of poverty, the Treasury has said. Suspending this support is the equivalent of at least a one per cent income tax hike per child for the families it was meant to help.
"We were told by the work and pensions secretary that it was wrong that families trying to move off benefits face effective tax rates of up to 95 per cent, so we are stunned the Government is shelving plans to address this problem. It is completely at odds with the coalition's commitment to end child poverty by 2020. The decision must be urgently reviewed."
