In an interview with PoliticsUK, Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, spoke on the importance of eliminating child poverty and how the government’s decisions like expanding free school meals to all children from households on Universal Credit, introducing primary school breakfast clubs, and capping the cost of school uniforms will further Labour’s “moral mission” to reduce child poverty.
A primary motivator for the move to expand free school meals is to improve attainment and attendance in the classroom. Phillipson claims that increasing the amount of children eligible for free school meals will support half a million children, lifting 100,000 out of poverty thanks to estimated annual savings of £500 per child each year.
The Education Secretary also outlined that a range of measures are being undertaken to reduce child poverty, such as capping the cost of school uniforms, introducing breakfast clubs, and increasing minimum wage all part of a range of social security and education reform.
She said that “nothing is off the table” in terms of reforms, indicating that scrapping the two-child benefit cap remains a possibility, saying that the upcoming Child Poverty Taskforce report, co-chaired by Bridget Phillipson and Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, will review all options available to the government to reduce child poverty and increase the life chances of children across the country.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) reported that the expansion of free school meals will actually be less cost effective in terms of lifting children out of poverty than scrapping the two-child benefit cap would be.
When questioned on if the decision to expand free school meals was made instead of because it was an easier political decision, rather than the correct one, she said argued that this was not this case, instead saying: “We know we can lift children out of poverty” through meal provisions and support, which is why its been “so well received by campaigners, by charities and by parents,” continuing to insist that further reforms to the social security system are under review through the taskforce, but that nothing is off the table and no single reform can be a “silver bullet”, the entire system requires adjustments and overhauls.
Featured image via Fred Duval / Shutterstock.
