This briefing, from CPAG and the NEU, lays out from an education perspective what is needed to reduce child poverty, to alleviate the negative impacts of poverty on children’s education, and to empower schools to ensure all children can thrive in education.
The minimum cost of education parents in the UK must meet is now over £1,000 a year for a child at primary school and nearly £2,300 a year for a child at secondary school.
The package of reforms set out yesterday will result in a net reduction in social security expenditure of £5 billion by 2029/30. This is the biggest cut to disability benefits in a generation, and will push children and families into poverty, and reduce living standards for many.
This briefing provides information on policies announced in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, alongside policy areas where opportunities to support children’s wellbeing were missed in this legislation.
This briefing looks at free school meals (FSMs) in Yorkshire and the Humber, including new statistics on the number of children in poverty in each local authority missing out on this entitlement.
Across the UK, millions of children receive a free school meal (FSM) each day at school. But many miss out. Previous CPAG analysis estimated that, across England, 900,000 school-age children in poverty (one in three school-age children) don’t qualify for a FSM under either the national universal infant provision or means-tested schemes. This new piece of analysis shows how this compares to national FSM schemes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The analysis also looks at how this figure is broken down by region in England.
There was very little in this Budget for children and families living in poverty. The Chancellor said yesterday that this government does not pass on its bills to the next generation, but the 4.2 million children living in poverty today are the next generation. Child poverty is scarring, and the decisions taken yesterday will leave a legacy of cold homes, empty tummies and crumbling classrooms. We are in urgent need of a plan to tackle child poverty.
There is only one part of the school day that is means-tested – lunchtime. We believe that all school children should be offered a balanced and filling school meal each day without cost. But a third of school-age children in England (900,000) living in poverty miss out on free school meals.
More than 8,500 individuals and organisations gave evidence to the latest Work and Pensions Committee inquiry into benefit assessments. Carri Swann considers the government’s response.
