to think a £7500 income cap on free school meals is a deathwish?

[thirdhill]

I'm so shocked to see the Children's Society analysis reported in most papers today about proposals to introduce a £7500 income cap on free school meals.

My initial reaction is this is sheer vindictiveness, taking away a meal from kids in dire need. Will the money spent on a daily lunch for a few children save our economy? Or perhaps we can be relied on to not care anymore? Or is there a wider picture nobody is reporting? My understanding is that the present income cap is £16k, which already seems a challenge for a family of say four.

Sarah Teather, the Minister, is a lib dem MP but this must tar both parties for many and seems an absolute deal breaker for mobile voters. Straw that broke the camel's back, death wish, etc.

Curious if anyone knows any more to this.

TIA

i dont have children but this cut absolutely disgusts me.
Someone upthread said something about turning up at school with a portable BBQ. What about loads of mumsnetters doing this en masse on exactly the same day and continuing to do so.
Apparently the cold weather payments will stop under Universal Credit as well.

That's how I feel Mrs De V if it tight for us then how on worth do they expect people on minimum wage etc to manage

Tory scum.

Not so keen on the idea of bountifully doling out BBQ sausages to hollow-cheeked waifs, I must say - a good stunt, maybe, but pretty humilating for the nippers!

Cold weather payments?!

not content with starving poor kids they have to freeze them too?!

Old Grey No they didn't. American multinational banks caused the crisis, ably assisted by neo-liberal govts.
thereisanalternative

My dd and her friends aren't humiliated

Two things .....has anyone been watching Eastenders in the last week or so. They showed Bianca going without food so that she could feed her kids. There was a thread about precisely that on here a few months back so i do wonder if some of the writers on these programmes read threads on the internet.
......also might be worth keeping an eye on question time and newsnight tonight to see if they cover this.
Nit i do get your point but i think the hunger would win out over humiliation.

Julia is right, assisted by the IMF and it's imposing upon member debtor nations such crippling austerity. They set the indicator of true poverty at $1.25 a day.

Am I being thick, but I read that article and it doesn't actually say the tories are even thinking about implementing a cap of £7500? I know it says they are "considering a new streamlined system of universal credit " but it looks like the figure £7500 was arbitrarily picked by the charity... seems very misleading of them to do that and present it as a fact.
(I do hate the tories with an absolute passion, but while they might cut welfare ... this particular income cap to £7500?! I don't see even them doing that, and the article doesn't say they are planning to).

YY mini $1.25 for us proles, not for themselves, obviously

www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ae870996-8a03-11e1-a0c8-00144feab49a.html#axzz1sVYGDQjt

I watched that episode with Bianca not eating.

Netmums did a survey recently where a shocking proportion of mums said thay were missing meals. I wondered if the Eastenders writers had seen that when I watched it!

I feel very much as you do on this MrsDV except that my two DCs have always had school dinners because I feel it's more nutritious for them and it helps me as well.
We probably do need to cut back on some aspect of our family expenditure, but I'm reluctant to give this up as I feel it's both valuable to them and helpful to us all.
I'm sorry more children are not able to benefit from a good, hot meal at lunch time. When I was a child almost everyone had the school dinner option - 12p a day for many years = 60p a week
And that with this proposal it will be taken away from many who need it most.

I think the Finns have the right idea actually in providing a free meal for all children at school. They'll probably save a fortune in the long run through the improved health and well-being of their future adult citizens, especially when combined with their excellent early years provision which of course will also pay dividends for many years.

oh no you will have to pay for your own kids meal !!!! jeez these are your kids if you cant afford to feed them then dont have kids !!! i'm on low income and dont claim for free meals....

Hmm as an idea could charitable status on all independent schools be removed and they be taxed as businesses - would that raise enough money to pay for FSM for children in the lowest income families?

Mmm probably not if they are taxed like Goldman Sachs or Vodaphone - but is an idea. Don't worry Mr Osbourne I won't charge you normal special advisor rates appreciate you're counting the pennies!

I think getting as many celebrities involved as much as possible is a good idea...

hear me out,

The only time the gov or officials take any notice is when it's plastered all over the media , now, there are thousands of petitions against one thing or another at the moment and NONE of them are being noticed, wether they make the total number of signatures needed or not.

If we have to use celebs to get this noticed in the media, on tv, in papers, in the news...then so be it. The only time the gov ever seem to take any notice is when they are forced to by the media...look at the benefit reforms for the disabled and Ill...massive campaigns everywhere but hardly a mention on the news, and these reforms are disgusting, the new Universal credit thing is going to be a disaster, the only time the gov EVER took any notice of ANYTHING was the fiasco about the workfare programe...and that was only because of coverage on the news due to the chaos and uproar that had been created by FB and twitter.

It just seems to me that if a big enough stink is made on social networking sites, the media will pick it up then the pressure on the Government is made.

top circumstances change. Why don't you claim fsm for your kids?

Topmumma what about the families where one parent has died or lost their job through accident or illness. What about through unexpected redundancy (know how that one feels)? Even where the parents could have been more responsible is it right to starve children?

topmumma. That is a very ignorant thing to say. Unless you have a wealthy generous family you could find yourself in this position one day.

"oh no you will have to pay for your own kids meal !!!! jeez these are your kids if you cant afford to feed them then dont have kids !!! i'm on low income and dont claim for free meals...."

idiot. try thinking past the end of your nose. have your circumstances remained the same since the day your were born?

Top, disregard the parents and questions about whether people should/shouldn't have children.

This is about whether children should/shouldn't eat. Rather more important really.

I guess topmumma takes pride in being able to provide for her children. Well, I guess I do too as far as I'm able to, which with my DH is pretty adequately, whilst claiming the basic benefits to which we're entitled (CB and some CTC)
If we were entitled to FSMs we'd claim those too as I like them to have a school dinner and the school also gets extra funding for children who do claim which benefits other children in the school too.

yep, if you are entitled to, but not claiming, fsm you are causing your school to miss out on funding.