Free school meals

[mutznutz]

I was just thinking. With so many Government and Council cutbacks, isn't it about time they stopped providing free school meals that cost untold millions of pounds to provide?

I mean we're already given child benefit to help with the cost of our children. Also, as long as you're feeding your child properly at home, what's wrong with providing a fairly inexpensive packed lunch if you can't afford to buy them a hot one? (not that they are particularly 'hot' nowdays)

Plus, if parents cant afford to feed their children when they go to school...how do they manage at weekends and during the 13wks holidays they get per year?

Then there are the parents who earn just above the threshold and cannot afford school meals...their kids would have a packed lunch so why not everyone?

Tell me about it Bitching!

Usual I was here two days when someone asked me if I was someone else...then I got a weird PM from someone saying "Lol it's you isn't it? Surely you didn't think we wouldn't spot you"...they didn't say who they meant though. It would have been irrelivant anyway as I wouldn't have known them

I completely disagree with the OP and am with those who would rather the scheme be extended to more children. The amount it costs isn't tiny but it is a drop in the ocean compared to the benefit (over a lifetime) it gives to many of those getting it.

I'd rather the government scrap (if they've not quietly done so already) the silly idea of the transferable tax for married couples and use the money to give more children a free school meal.

I am very cynical about benefits and credits in general but I really feel that free school meals should be expanded to all school age children.

Several people have agreed that the child benefit budget should be switched to rolling out free school meals. It really is the only benefit that is guaranteed to get to the end user and benefit them and only them.

Perhaps child benefit could have a bonus payment in August and September which would help with food costs in the holidays.

As an addition to my point about the transferable tax:

"The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies estimate that this will cost about £550 million."

www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2010/04/Recognising_marriage_in_the_tax_system.aspx

obviously you didn't fall far enough them

"I imagine most parents whose children get free school meals would be offended if you were to suggest they weren't being fed at home. Most poor people are not the feckless creatures people make them out to be."

Quite.

''Child Poverty Action Group (www.cpag.org.uk). The report said that for one in four UK school children the only hot meal they receive each day is at school''.

I don't think anyone said most children on FSM weren't being fed at home. The fact is some children don't get much to eat at home, some children are neglected, these children are more likely to be from very poor families, people unable to look after their children adequately tend not to be in employment. But we could pretend that everyone on benefits is a saint so that no one gets offended.

We could also pretend that every smug wealthy parent is perfect

oh wait ...thats what this thread is all about

no - but the insinuation was there that if they weren't feeding them at home then their CB money should be directed straight to the school to pay for the lunches so they at least get that. They are givne the benefits ergo they MUST have enough money to feed their children 3 proper meals a day

I know that if they took money for school meals direct from my benefits I would be fucked and my children would get much less healthy food - as a full payment of £10 a week for my 3 children taken out of my benefits would cut my monthly shopping budget from around £260 to £130!! Now I'd like to think I'm fairly good at cooking on a budget - but an entire months shopping on £130 is beyond my capability.

The DD is at secondary school. I am horrified that girls who qualify for free school meals are expected to collect a token from the office and hand it over in the cafeteria. I really thought things had moved on and think it is truly DISGUSTING.

of course we can easily turn the argument onto other groups. The working poor, they get working tax credits, they get CHILD BENEFIT, they get their salary, they may well even get some council tax and housing benefit. Why are THEY struggling to pay for school meals (and in some cases sending pitfyful lunches with their children) - after all - they're getting child benefit which should feed their child........

bitching do u mean the people who work and earn under 14k a year?? Cos 14k is the cut off for wtc the only part of that others get is childcare - i get that - i work 30 hrs a week, pay childcare 3 days a week for dd and 3 after schools for ds ,dp works 40 hours over 5 days . To earn under 14k a year you would have to be a single parent.

Can i just add too that my water bill is £48 a month - people with 3 children or more in wales under 19 years get there water bill capped at £165 a year :o this shocked me :o

ha the emotions are wrong is the right face!

Onceamai it still happens at lots of schools. Horribly divisive and identifying.

My friend is an accountant, she went through lots of options with a client who was in trouble. She identified that the children would be eligible for fsm, the Mother declined because of the stigma, luckily her savvy 13 year old recognised that there were short term financial problems within the family and said he would be happy to have fsm. Sadly it's on a ticket basis and he could really do without the identification :(

My dds school dinners cost me roughly £70 per every half term, I am a single mum who works part time and has an annual income of less than £14000 a year. It is not much and I consider that we are 'poor' we do not qualify for free school meals and it is a lot of money for me to find. I want my dd to have a hot meal at school as she is often most hungry at lunchtime and on the days I work it would mean she would eat very late by the time we got home. I think free school meals should be extended def not taken away.

have they changed it then - as we hand an income of more than 14k - had no childcare costs and got CTC

• I mean the working poor - those who works their arses off and still struggle to provide the basics for their children.

(my water bill is £46 a month - I have 3 children..........I may move to Wales ) )

Alousieg and Onceamai - that's awful.

It was the stigma that stopped me claiming initially as well. I was SO relieved to find that it was all done discretely at the DS's schools. I think if it had been like you described or really "open" I wouldn't have claimed and would have struggled on (probably making myself ill in the process).

mutznutz if you came froma a family of five with a SAHM and a dad in a manual job, did you not benefit from free school meals yourself?
Or was that after they were stopped for working people?

I like the name btw

I'm cynical enough to believe that schools still make the process indiscreet to put children off.

Sadly.

alouiseg Interesting you complain about the stigma of fsm but then propose that benefits should be paid in vouchers.That would be like having a scrounger who can't be trusted to buy food for kids instead of fags sign around around your neck while you are doing your shopping.

Riven - the best people to help poor children are their parents.

The State taking over provision of nourishing and nutritious meals for children reduces yet further the likelihood of "poor" parents stepping up to the plate and being responsible.

CTC different to WTC, cut off for WTC is v.low - CTC on sliding scale for those with earnings up to £45K I think - about 80% of families qualfy for CTC

do you think so Alousieg. .

I know that I'm incredibly lucky with my DS's schools (particularly the infant school) - not just with the way they deal with FSM's (when they stopped my claim because I "wasn't entitled any more" the secretary faxed the information they wanted from me through to them from the school office to avoid further delays) but with other things too.

I don't understand why they'd want to put children off though - schools get extra funding based on the number of pupils eligble for FSM's.

One person's "stigma" is another person's way of ensuring that free school meals actually go those that need them.