Children and young people from the Cost of the School Day Voice network call for Universal Free School Meals (USFM) at a Scottish Parliament roundtable.
The proportion of tax credit claimants not moving to universal credit (UC) when required to – and losing all of their benefits as a result – has jumped to 39%, up from 25% in July, DWP figures published today show. That’s more than 180,000 people whose ‘legacy benefit’ claim has been terminated without safely making the move to UC.
South Lanarkshire Council’s Cost of the School Day Conference took place this week, where the local authority further cemented its commitment to equity by launching its Cost of the School Day guidance, and ten proposals.
Court of Appeal upholds decision that universal credit payments can be backdated on revision, but claimants risk still being thwarted by DWP IT design flaws and those subject to managed migration face ‘double whammy’ loss of transitional protections and backdated payments.
Managed migration to universal credit is about to expand to DWP legacy benefit claimants. The stakes are high, and we're calling for the DWP to slow down and put more safeguards in place.
While the additional financial support provided to households with children in Scotland is having a positive impact on family incomes compared with the UK as a whole, many are still struggling to meet a socially acceptable standard of living.
It was great to gather so many Cost of the School Day Voice network members together at one time, with more than 500 young people from across Scotland joining the first Big Meet Up online sessions.
Our interviews show that claimants did not have the information they needed or wanted to understand how moving to UC would affect them. Such misinformation and misunderstanding are likely to be reasons some people are not moving to UC despite having a strong financial incentive to do so.
Our UK Cost of the School Day programme, carried out in partnership with Children North East, has been transformative for schools and pupils. An independent evaluation of the project between 2019-22 highlights its impact on families, schools, local authorities and the wider education system.