David Cameron hits his first brick wall!
The coalition government's insistence that free school meal entitlements in England will not be extended, as suggested by the Labour Party, has not gone down well with poverty campaigners. The scheme which was introduced by the previous Labour government would have seen a further 500,000 families in the UK entitled to free school meals at a time when poverty is all around.
While the UK government has agreed to carry on with a pilot scheme which has been in existence for some time it is unlikely that the scheme will be extended across England. Under the details of the Labour plan all families with an income below £16,190 would be entitled to free school meals thereby taking some pressure off their monthly budgets. However, David Cameron appears to be playing into the hands of the Labour Party who have already accused him of attacking those on low incomes in order to protect those at the higher end of the income spectrum.
The government has suggested it will review the results of the ongoing pilot scheme and may well tweak the current system to ensure that those who need assistance will get assistance. Whether this will be enough to pacify campaigners very much remains to be seen.
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