Tories going to axe free school meals

[cannotbelievethistoday]

So I have 2 children in private school.

Labour want to put VAT on private school fees, and extend free school meals to all primary children.

Tories are going to remove infant free school meals.

Bloody hell. And still people will vote Tory.

(My 2 kids are in private school - I totally agree with labour on this one)

Can't parents just feed their own kids ffs. It's a pretty basic requirement
The point, though, is protecting those vulnerable children whose parents either can't afford proper lunches, or otherwise don't provide them. Targeted FSM protect the former, but the later also need to be protected. Having said that, I agree with the proposed changes, but do think schools need to look out for children of incapable parents.

They are going to stop free school meals for infant children and replace with free breakfast for all primary children. As was always the case children will still be entitled to free school lunches as in the past. So now 'poorer' (don't like that term but not sure what else to use) kids will get both breakfast and lunch at school.

Not really following what your problem is op?

They have also said there will be a guarantee that schools will not see their funding cut in the current shakeup of the system, which if it means what is says is pretty good news.

But parents on low incomes get child tax credits for exactly this reason to feed their kids

But if that parent also gets WTC they are ineligible for FSm.

I agree with swirly that the breakfast thing is not really thought through and they haven't released details What time do kids need to be there to get the free breakfast? Who will supervise them? Or maybe it will be after 9...eating in to learning time. I would rather my Dd has breakfast at home, we eat our together each morning, if I'm making myself breakfast I will make my child one as well so I wouldn't use this.

Free lunches is much more beneficial, it guarantees all children get a healthy nutritious meal regardless of circumstances at home. I agree with them and they should not be abolished. In the grand scheme of things the cost is minimal and the benefits are huge.

I dislike many Tory policies, but this is a good one. The vast majority of children don't need the government to pay for their school lunches because they have parents that can do it for them or who can make them a packed lunch. There are far better things to spend public money on rather than things that people can reasonably be expected to pay for for themselves

^ this.

And, with regards to stigmatising etc: At DD's Primary, there is pretty good in-house catering, but ironically some of the struggling families are the ones most likely to choose to send in packed lunches for their DC in KS1.Seemingly, because their DC don't like the hot dinner options. Meanwhile, the middle-class parents encourage their DC to eat school dinners.

The wrong families are reaping the benefit.

I'm in two minds about this, while I can afford to make packed lunches for my DS, many parents around the country can't.

But what I imagine will happen with a Tory government is that the threshold for means-tested lunches will be lowered, so those just-about managing parents will no longer receive universal free school meals, BUT they will also no longer be 'poor enough' to be entitled to them. And then those children who are, well, they will be a very conspicuous minority once again.

And do we really believe that a tory government is going to plough back these savings in to education? Last I heard they were wanting to cut / reduce / spread budgets around more.

If they do, then great - I will happily forgo my son's lunches, but I'm just not convinced they will. After all, how else are they going to fund tax-cuts for the rich?

Does anyone know from when it will be axed?

After all, how else are they going to fund tax-cuts for the rich?

Ffs there will be no tax cuts for the rich, what a load of crap. The top 1% pay more income tax as a % of total tax now than they have at any time in the last 20 years.
I know you won't believe this but since the coalition government came in there has been the biggest reduction in the tax burden to lower paid workers (by increasing the zero and 20p bands) than in many years (can't remember the number off the top of my head but will try to find it.

I know you won't believe this but since the coalition government came in there has been the biggest reduction in the tax burden to lower paid workers (by increasing the zero and 20p bands) than in many years

These Tory haters don't let the facts get in the way! The lower income groups have saved huge amounts due to the raising of the tax free personal allowances, the personal savings allowance, savings rate band, etc. The personal allowance has increased from a measly £6,475 to £11,300 - that's a tax saving of up to £965 per year for lower earners and has taken millions of people out of paying tax at all.

I'm with Clarrylove and RainbowsAndUnicorn on this one.

The unpleasant smug cunts on here who think it will never happen to them or their's, well it might, it's already there in your naice suburbs and villages but people are shamed by arseholes who make them feel like shit for needing help and they don't go telling you their circumstances funnily enough,

The unpleasant smug cunts on here who think it will never happen to them or their's, well it might, it's already there in your naice suburbs and villages but people are shamed by arseholes who make them feel like shit for needing help and they don't go telling you their circumstances funnily enough,

Free school meals AREN'T disappearing for those who need it! They're staying. How is it so hard to grasp? Why should someone on say £90, 000 a year get free school meals if they say they're more than happy to pay for their own?

The unpleasant smug cunts on here who think it will never happen to them or their's, well it might, it's already there in your naice suburbs and villages but people are shamed by arseholes who make them feel like shit for needing help and they don't go telling you their circumstances funnily enough

Funnily enough you don't know mine or any one else's circumstances but hey carry on throwing stupid insults about.

OliviaPopeRules the problem is the government says it will not cut funding but is failing to recognise all the new burdens, now to include breakfast clubs as well as apprenticeship levy, increased NI, increased business rates, etc. So in effect school budgets are being cut significantly.

I don't know what I think about this tbh. I can see that paying for meals for those who can afford them seems a sensible thing to cut when education is woefully underfunded. However I thought that TM wanted to help the "Just About Managing" families and I could see how this would help them. I am sure that even in "naice" villages there are JAM families. It is amusing that some people seem to think that poor people don't manage to get into their communities.

I could see that even in a "naice" village you could have a family on a reasonable income with a high mortgage or rent, paying out for childcare etc and funded school meals would be a welcome relief.

However if it is a choice between finding early years provision or schools properly or free lunches I would choose the former.

Ignore me if this has already been posted, but the main points of the freshly issued Conservative manifesto are here:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-39960311

If they are more than happy to pay for meals but are offered free school meals so the stigma is lost why don't they simply make a donation of their savings to the school.
What I take huge exception to is people making assumptions about other people's circumstances about how no one could possibly need fsm's if they live in certain areas.
That is what is insulting.

Wow. Well the response on here has shocked but educated me. I am offering to be taxed more, for a fundamental policy change, and people are telling me to keep my money and they will pay more themselves.

At some point, champagne socialist do-gooders will realise that the great unwashed are not interested in being beholden to their Great Benevolence and Charity.

FSM should be just for those who need them; universal child benefit, free school meals & winter payment for pensioners is an outrageous waste of money.

If they are more than happy to pay for meals but are offered free school meals so the stigma is lost why don't they simply make a donation of their savings to the school.

Because they have enough to pay out as it is without paying more money to the school as they are deemed "rich" enough to?
Feeding your family when you have money comes under parenting. Giving even more money to the school fund just because some want them to have their food bought for them is daft.

Only it hasn't. It has been noted in a number of studies that those in receipt of free school meals are often the subject of prejudice in the classroom, both by teachers and pupils. Pupils for obvious reasons, teachers because they're expectations of children in receipt of benefits is lower. They are picked to answer questions less frequently than their peers, their questions are answered less frequently, more slowly and with less care than their peers, they are considered to be more troublesome than their peers whether or not that is actually factual.

How on earth do other children know in the first place?

What about pupil premium - presumably this carries the same connotation?

*They take from the sick. They take from the old. And now they target hungry children.

But Tory Debt Still Grows.

They are failing at their own sinister goals.*

They want to axe this (something that hugely benefits those on low incomes).

FSM will still be available to those who need it.
Jocasta and Tarquin's mummy will just have to suck it up & get the nanny to sort out lunches again I suppose.

They also want to get rid of the winter fuel payments to pensioners.

I'm sure Alan Sugar, Mick Jagger et al will manage without it.
As for the less well off pensioners who need it - well, they'll still be getting it so nae dramas there.

I am in the US. Here there is an on-line payment plan. Parents pay into an account, the children each have an account number. Children who qualify for free school meals have money paid into their account by the school district (I think). No one is the wiser as they give their number at the end of the lunch line and all the cashier does is check there is sufficient balance in their account.

I don't understand why there isn't something similar in the UK. Children who need free meals can get them without the stigma and money isn't wasted on children who don't need or want free meals.

In my area children can get free breakfast and lunch. Some children do not eat anything except the meals they get at school and food bags they are given to take home on the weekend from the food bank. Stopping free school meals, as the Republicans want to do, would be downright dangerous for some of these children.

That's the system in secondary schools. Children pay with their fingerprint rather than cash.