https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdr5mr5l2d1o
'Any child in England whose parents receive Universal Credit will be able to
claim free school meals from September 2026, the government has said.
Parents on the credit will be eligible regardless of their income. Currently,
their household must earn less than £7,400 a year to qualify.
The government says the change will make 500,000 more pupils eligible, which
the prime minister said would "help families who need it most".
Sir Keir Starmer is facing more calls to tackle child poverty by scrapping the
two-child benefit cap, but told the
BBC that focusing on free school meals
would help boost pupil attainment.
The government said the changes to free school meals would save parents £500 a
year and "lift 100,000 children out of poverty".
Sir Keir said the measure was a "down payment" on a broader child poverty
strategy, including measures that have already been announced, such as free
school breakfast clubs, and those due to be published in this autumn.
Asked by the
BBC why he would not first scrap the two-child benefit cap -
which prevents most families from claiming means-tested benefits for any third
or additional children born after April 2017 - he said "it's really important
that we focus on attainment and on the cost of living".
"I'm the first to accept there's no silver bullet, there's no one thing that if
you do that there are no other issues," he said. "That's why the [Child Poverty
Taskforce] is looking at a broad range of measures."
Education Bridget Phillipson also stressed the plan would lead to higher
educational outcomes because "if you're hungry, it's really hard to
concentrate".
The Department for Education (DfE) has set aside £1bn to fund the change up to
2029.'
Via
Positive.News
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
