Are free school meals going to be included in benefits cap?

Sixer

Vejovis wrote: »

so due to a few fe ckless parents, my children should be forced to eat substandard meals at school? no thanks. the amount it'd cost to make school meals a high standard would be astronomical.

Rubbish. It can actually save money. And the people working in the system can actually earn better wages to boot.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dinner-Lady-Change-Children-Forever/dp/0593054296

Vejovis

Sixer wrote: »

Rubbish. It can actually save money. And the people working in the system can actually earn better wages to boot.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dinner-Lady-Change-Children-Forever/dp/0593054296

have you seen school meals lately? i have because i worked in a school kitchen before moving jobs at the end of last year. what you read in books and what happens in reality are two entirely different things.

vintagebrighton

Just a point not on school meals but on the social fund part mentioned by BigAunty above.... the Social Fund is to be abolished so not sure why it's mentioned with the free school meals. Can't find the link right now but there was an article about it. Some money will be given to local authorities to administer but it won't be ring fenced.

stroodes

If free school meals are over and above the £26000 benefit limit then surely parents working and earning a little over the £26000 should have that deducted before being accessed............I do not qualify for either but think it should go both ways.

bored_at_home

sixer you suggest free school lunches, free breakfasts and after school clubs?????
what planet are you on?
if you have the kids, you should feed them and look after them! why should anyone else do it?
that wouldnt decrease dependancy either, it would simplymean the state feeding every kid in the land instead of the parents. and it wouldnt increase incentive to work itd just give the parents more to blow on non essentials.

Sixer

bored_at_home wrote: »

sixer you suggest free school lunches, free breakfasts and after school clubs?????
what planet are you on?
if you have the kids, you should feed them and look after them! why should anyone else do it?
that wouldnt decrease dependancy either, it would simplymean the state feeding every kid in the land instead of the parents. and it wouldnt increase incentive to work itd just give the parents more to blow on non essentials.

No; it would give the parents less. As I said.

DorsetGirl_2

I remember watching Children in Need this year and seeing a club that had received funding - it was a breakfast club that was open so that these children could get a decent breakfast before school, and they had a long waiting list. I was absolutely flabbergasted that so many children went to school without breakfast - its terribly sad and bordering on neglect in my eyes.

BigAunty

"McConnell takes food to schools where, before they introduced breakfast clubs, pupils were fainting or slipping under their desks, where PE was cancelled because children were too weak, where pupils have been in hospital with scurvy and malnutrition, and where cold chips are in lunch boxes and packets of crisps are served for dinner."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/oct/23/school-breakfast-clubs-at-risk

Apparently, even working parents of 3 children cannot spend £3 a day to pay for them to eat at breakfast clubs, nor about the 50p a day it would cost them to make them cereal or toast in the morning at home. The latter is simply ridiculous.

MissMoneypenny

bored_at_home wrote: »

if you have the kids, you should feed them and look after them! why should anyone else do it?
that wouldnt decrease dependancy either, it would simplymean the state feeding every kid in the land instead of the parents. and it wouldnt increase incentive to work itd just give the parents more to blow on non essentials.

And there lies the problem. Too many parents are now expecting the state (other people) to pay for the children they chose to have.

We need to get back to the days of people financially planning before they have children and realising they will have to go without many things themselves, when children arrive.

MissMoneypenny

DorsetGirl wrote: »

I remember watching Children in Need this year and seeing a club that had received funding - it was a breakfast club that was open so that these children could get a decent breakfast before school, and they had a long waiting list. I was absolutely flabbergasted that so many children went to school without breakfast - its terribly sad and bordering on neglect in my eyes.

From reading his board, many parents see the child's welfare payments as "their tax credits".

I have serious doubts that all of the child's tax credits, is being spent on the child's food, clothes, clubs, outings. It would be much better to give child tax credits to the parents in vouchers. Vouchers would still be open to abuse, but at least the child would stand a better chance of getting their welfare money spent on them.