So free school meals for children of low income familes to be scraped

[ruckyrunt]

and only if you live on unemployment benifit will your children get free school meals

Nothing like not giving any incentive to go back to work then.

This gives those people living on benifit another reason not to work and claim tax credits and working tax credits

it was proposed to give low income fmailies free school meals in junior school.

Its the children that suffer, the little mites do end up going hungry whilst money is spent elsewhere

swallowed a, I think sickness benefits should come under IS in that the £10 per week rise would apply there also. Do people on ESA not get IS for their kids (as TC's?) if so, I did say i'd award cash also to cover that.

AS soemone on diffefrent benefits but comparable income, with an older child, FSM's would make a hiuge difference to us aboce the level of CB really.

'if you have over £16k a year earnings plus child benefit you do have enough money to make pack lunches for your child. sorry.'

i agree. but it can also be argued that if you are on 'sickness benefits' and have three children under the age of 16, then you, too, 'earn' £16K/annum (especially as if you are on full benefit you are getting your rent and council tax paid) so you, too, have enough money to provide your children with lunch. sorry.

a person on £16K/annum, as they have to pay full council tax (and usually all their rent), in addition to taxes and NI, very often is worse off than a lone parent on benefits, particularly if they have more than one child.

that was the whole point of the OP.

Parents who create children and then abandon them definitely should be first in line as targets.

I've been saying that for years.

But the real problem in getting people off benefits is that, all too often, a working poor wage earner is worse off than a person on benefits.

'I don't get anything like 16k annually believe me.'

You don't in cash. But if you get ESA, DLA and CTC for 3 kids, plus council tax and housing benefit and CB for 3 kids, you get as much if not more than a person earning £16K. Because they have to pay full rent and council tax.

A person earning £16K doesn't get that.

They have tax and NI to pay on top of that full rent and council tax.

And they also have to pay at least 20% of their childcare costs.

That's why, AGAIN, all too often, it doesn't pay to go out to work.

"but i guess your not 6 years old either living with a alcholic mother who doesn't like to let her purse out of her sight incase you take some of the money which is needfor the booze - so you run along to school without any breakfast and havn't had more than a couple of slices of bread and marg for tea last night, ucnhtime comes but your not doen for lunch and have no packed lunch like some of the other dc - you ask the teacher after lucnh if she has any biccies - she send you down to the dinner ladies who give you a biccy to keep you going"

ruckyrunt, I'm not disputing that this situation doesn't happen - as a teacher I've seen it myself - but no school/teacher would let the 6 year old little girl exist on just a 'biccy' for an entire school day.

we are worse off with dh working. not much worse, but marginally. then loss of school dinners meant we had t do packed lunches rather than school dinners.

meals are £1.70/£1.75 depending on ks1/ks2

Jesus, I can't believe that, that's outrageous. We would always give them a dinner - and worry about paying for it later.

there was a girl at ourr school who is now in a SNU (severe verbal dyspraxia); she couldn't stand spicy and they always run out of anything else (I think it's s ensory thing- actually makes her gag); when her aprents complained the head said 'if she'd said i;d have given her a bite of my apple'.

So it can happen, although i;d put money on it being rare.

But isn't one of the points of welfare to pick up on the very saddest of cases? Like kids who are not fed etc?

(My ds's often forget or lose their dinner money btw and school does always feed them, though we had a dispute for a while as his money was being taken by kids as 'payment' for friendship and we couldn;t afford to in effect pay twice (ds1 is being assessed for anorexia; we can't send him lunches as he is watched and assesed as he eats)

We managed to find the oney although I did yell DDA for a bit as it was his ASD that was causing him to hand it over (cash) without recognition of what was behind it, and therefore causing us to pay dou8ble cost.

Cuts need to be made and made fast so whether people want them to happen or not they need to if we are to ever get the country back on track.

Giving free school meals to all children was insane, if you choose to have a child you need to bear the financial responsibility not the state. Scrapping that pilot scheme makes total sense.

The government need to ensure working pays rather than allowing people all the nice things in life whilst choosing to live on state/tax payers money. Eg, a single parent can claim IS, HB, CTB, CTC and CB - add onto that any maintenance, free school meals, free laptop, free prescriptions, not paying for school events etc it all adds up to a far healthier amount that some people get for working and providing for their children. Its not right and needs to change.

The government can help people in other ways, like raising the tax threashold etc to encourage working.

Tax credits take up a huge amount of admin and are open to errors and abuse. Far simpler to scrap them and higher the tax allowance and subsidise nurseries direct so that childcare assistance is still available.

No additional benefits should be paid for those who choose to have more children whilst already on benefits and CB should be capped to two children with a possible lower age limit rather than the until the end of education.

i disagree with the idea that CB should be scrapped to pay for FSM
my son never had school dinners, and dd's are "free" anyway, I need the CB and would resent loosing it to pay for other peoples children to have a free dinner.

How much in benefits would a single fit man without children get if he was out of work and by how much would you like it to be reduced if that is where the cuts are to start?

SwallowedAfly, I used single parents as an example to show how benefits needed changing. I am totally in favour of a welfare state but one thats supports those who cannot work not those that wont and there is a difference. Having children renders nobody incapable of working unless the child is disabled and needs constant care. I'd say the same re cutting benefits for those on JSA after x time etc.

I'd far rather see benefits cut for those that can support themselves by working rather than lose teachers in school or nurses in hospitals.