§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science by how much it is estimated that the increase in child tax allowances under the Finance Bill will reduce the take-up of, respectively, free school meals, school uniform grants and educational maintenance allowances.
§ Mrs. ThatcherI do not expect any reduction in the take-up of free school meals to follow the improvement in the child tax allowances. The change took place too late to be taken into account in assessing entitlement to free school meals during the summer term 1971, and the new income scales which will operate from next month will bring many more families into entitlement, including all those whose entitlement as measured by the previous income scale might have been affected by the higher allowances.
I cannot estimate the effect of the tax changes on the take-up of school uniform grants or educational maintenance allowances, which are matters for the discretion of local education authorities.