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)

Who administers the means test? For it to be useful it has to include those on very low income but not eligible for FSM under the old scheme. It's not a simple means test if you do it so as to capture the people who actually need the help most. Should individual schools have to spend time doing this from their already stretched resources? And if you can afford to pay for meals but don't have to, you could donate the equivalent money to your children's school?

Should individual schools have to spend time doing this from their already stretched resources?

Schools wouldn't do it I wouldn't imagine.

And if you can afford to pay for meals but don't have to, you could donate the equivalent money to your children's school?

Maybe I'm very cynical but I just don't think people would do that. Schools have enough trouble finding trips when they ask for suggested donations of a certain amount rather than a cost per pupil.

Isn't she promising every child free breakfast instead?

There is something about breakfasts yes.

And yy to axing universal benefits for the elderly.Is reassuring as in the past very wealthy pensioners have had benefits they don't need protected. It has always sent out a message that rich pensioners trump squeezed working families.

This rather they are them than the school ask me for 200 quid at the beginning of the year because they can't afford stationary, exercise books etc

Please can someone point me to where it says the money will be put into education funding instead?

The problem with it not being a universal offer is it isn't always the children of parents who can't afford it who don't get good food provided by home and in very small children nutrition is a huge factor in their development

Thing is how are people ever going to learn when more and more parental duties are being taken away from the parents and put on to schools.

Maybe they'd be more time for actual teaching and no need for all this bloody homework of instead of doing basics like teaching them to sit still, use cutlery and feeding them.

Hold those parents accountable instead.

I also agree with abolishing it as a universal benefit.

It has made less people apply for pupil premium since FSM was the main visible benefit to parents.
It also adds to the general benefits culture - "the government will provide".
It has done nothing to tackle obesity - the kids mainly still eat with parents in the evening, going from a packed lunch+hot meal to 2 hot meals a day (and 5 puddings a week!).

Will be interesting to see what happens to all these nice shiny new school kitchens and extra cooks etc.

And you have to be very poor to qualify for FSM btw, there is a large chasm between that and 'I barely notice the cost'

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.

Another one who can afford my child's school meals, along with the huge majority of other parents at our school.

sensible - spend the money on staff, not providing us free meals we can easily pay for. We have to get serious about very properly testing benefits to any spending given the ageing population pressures on NHS spending.

Thing is how are people ever going to learn when more and more parental duties are being taken away from the parents and put on to schools.

Those parents don't learn though. The children just miss out.

Maybe they'd be more time for actual teaching and no need for all this bloody homework of instead of doing basics like teaching them to sit still, use cutlery and feeding them.

Teachers don't supervise lunchtimes. I can't see how lack of a free school meal impacts on homework.

sensible - spend the money on staff, not providing us free meals we can easily pay for.

There is NO PLAN to increase school funding. It comes out of a different pot.

Infant free school are given to all, this policy is not providing just for those who need it but for all. The money would in my opinion be better spent on school resources and ones that parents would not be paying for anyway. Universal free school means is not a good use of funds

Free school meals for every kid is such a ridiculous policy. free school meals for those that can't afford to feed their kids, fair enough, but there is so many more things we need to spend money on that giving every kid a free school lunch. Take the money and pump it into the NHS, our police force, whatever, but don't use millions upon millions to give every primary kid a free school lunch.

Just another example of wasting the publics money. The tories do right to scrap it. The money can be better spent elsewhere.

Posted too soon, for those parents that can't afford, free school meals are a wonderful thing. But to provide fro all is a huge waste of money.
Just for the record I am by no means well off, sometimes not even "comfortable" but I can afford to provide basic meals for the children.

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

Are you always so overly dramatic

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

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

They are lining their own pockets.

Free meals for children whose families cannot afford it should stay.
Universally provided free meals, no.

They also want to get rid of the winter fuel payments to pensioners.
Do they want to get rid altogether or make them means tested?

As Lulu said, it's not always that parents can't give a lunch but that some of them don't, or don't give a proper one. So the 'parents should do it' line seems to be missing the point for me. We know that. But some kids are still missing out.

Isn't one of the main arguments for universality that it costs as much to carry out means testing as it would to just pay it out to everyone?

I agree with you OP.

Hold those parents accountable instead.

Exactly.

So many seem to think the cost of their children is someone else's responsibility. Perhaps the more state intervention and money we remove the more people will either step up and actually parent properly or stop having children they have no intention of funding themselves.

Rainbows
Quite

"hungry children"