Nicola Smith
The Coalition Government has announced that it is cutting the entire Child Trust Fund – going further than the plans set out in the Conservative manifesto to retain it for families on the lowest incomes. From 1st August payments will be ‘scaled back’ – reduced to £50 for ‘better off’ families and cut from £500 to £100 for lower income families. Payments for children at age 7 will stop. From 1st January 2011 all payments will stop.
The case for the retention of the fund has been well made – cutting it shows that the Government is doing far more than reducing ‘waste’ . Today’s announcement means that children and families across the country will be worse off. And there is far more to come. While the coaltion have attempted to win positive media coverage by ‘protecting’ spending on schools, Sure Start and education this only applies to today’s ‘in-year’ cuts – families are not protected from future reductions.
Trackback made by Tweets that mention Cuts Watch #9: Child Trust Fund | ToUChstone blog: A public policy blog from the TUC -- Topsy.com on May 24th 2010 at 11:46 am:
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by ToUChstone blog, TIGMOO. TIGMOO said: ToUChstone blog: Cuts Watch #9: Child Trust Fund http://bit.ly/9qZJII [...]
Trackback made by Cuts Watch: a summary | ToUChstone blog: A public policy blog from the TUC on May 24th 2010 at 4:10 pm:
[...] which are likely to hit the most vulnerable the hardest – including the cutting of the Child Trust Fund and the cut in the local government grant (combined with the end of ringfencing for key [...]
Comment made by john witts on May 24th 2010 at 6:54 pm:
what a bloody surprise! Them stupid ***** should never have been let into power as yet again its the british people and families that get shafted. All conservatives and lib dems are lying useless scum and the country should have voted UKIP coz £45,000,000 a day and the stopping of immigration could save this country and its economy without screwing its people and families!!!