Welfare reforms may create ‘losers’, say critics

FLAGSHIP WELFARE reforms will create “losers” despite a likely 50,000 increase in the number of children eligible for free school meals (FSMs), a new analysis claims.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said it expects there to be families who gain and lose out under changes introduced via Universal Credit (UC), which involves six benefits being rolled into one payment, compared to the system it replaces.

It believes there could be a “small increase of around 50,000” in the number of children eligible for FSMs. Entitlements to the benefit will be lost by jobless families disqualified from UC altogether and working families where the parents work low numbers of hours on a higher wage, the briefing note from the respected economic think tank adds. The children of lone parents are expected to be the biggest beneficiaries in terms of being eligible for FSMs, the analysis suggests.

In total, the IFS estimates around 160,000 children will lose entitlement to FSMs under UC while around 210,000 stand to gain entitlement. A political row has broken out in Parliament in recent weeks about the impact of the changes on children receiving FSMs.

All families on Universal Credit are currently able to claim free school meals, as part of a package of measures to help the transition to the new benefits system.

Meanwhile, a vending machine for the homeless which a charity claimed was the first in the world has been scrapped after just three months. Action Hunger installed the device in the Broadmarsh Centre in Nottingham to provide food, socks and toothbrushes to people sleeping rough at Christmas. But the city council has now said it was a “misguided and ill-informed attempt to address complex problems”.