Free school meals = No tuition fees

That's what you think.

Once the policy is applied for the tuition fee hike in 2012, those 18,000 poor students elligble for the 40% discount will all be on it.

LOL. The people eligible for free meals will be mostly working class and their parents will probably have not been to university. Throw in the added deterant of the debt figures being thrown about in the media and I doubt their will be more applications from these people. The narrow minded-ness of some of the middle class TSR users is hilarious.

Reply 21

Fysidiko

10

Original post by lm_wfc

stupid rule. they dont have to pay up front, how poor their family was as a child should have nothing to do with it, the repayments are already set out so that you only pay what you can afford, its tories trying to prove it wont price people out of uni, like some idiots claimed

Original post by chinaberry

Blarg.
This is stupid. They can get loans like the rest of us! Free tuition, what have they done to deserve that apart from have poor parents?
The government shouldn't take it for granted that parents will help you out- what happened to independent after 21?

This is to an extent true, and I have often decried the claims that people from poor families will be unable to go to university as scaremongering. But it has to be borne in mind that there are two related but distinct issues: whether or not people will be prevented from going to university by the debt burden, and whether or not people will be put off going because of worry over the burden. There is a worry - and, based on my experience volunteering in schools, a well-founded one - that a debt of £30,000 will be seen by people from poor backgrounds as insurmountable and that, whatever the economic realities of the repayments, they will be dissuaded from going to university by it. It is, I think, difficult not to sympathise; if a student's parents did not go to university, have low incomes and have had a difficult experience with private debts it is understandable that they should perceive the debt as much more worrisome than it would be perceived by a student whose parents are better off and have not been troubled by debt in the same way. Personally I think that the students, protesters and politicians who have exaggerated the debt burden for their own partisan purposes have a lot to answer for in regard to this. Regardless, the issue that is being addressed is the second one; the aim is, by providing more support, to diffuse the panic felt among many people from poor backgrounds. While I may think the subsidy unnecessary from a purely economic point of view I don't think it is untenable as an attempt to encourage enrolment among those students most likely to worry about the debt.

Reply 22

sete

Original post by buyingtheticket

LOL. The people eligible for free meals will be mostly working class and their parents will probably have not been to university. Throw in the added deterant of the debt figures being thrown about in the media and I doubt their will be more applications from these people. The narrow minded-ness of some of the middle class TSR users is hilarious.

The working class aren't entitled to this, its only if your parents basically don't work at all.

Its for the 'under-class - lower class' if you like.

You can live below the poverty line and still not be entitled to this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11975760

Reply 23

4ttari

OP

5

Original post by buyingtheticket

LOL. The people eligible for free meals will be mostly working class and their parents will probably have not been to university. Throw in the added deterant of the debt figures being thrown about in the media and I doubt their will be more applications from these people. The narrow minded-ness of some of the middle class TSR users is hilarious.

Wana have a bet on it?

I totally believe that those 18,000 places for poor kids are going to be filled rapidly.

Reply 24

IrishPerson

8

this is great news stop being stuck up and jealous of us poor people boohoo

Reply 25

IrishPerson

8

is this policy DEFINITELY confirmed?
if not when will we find out?

Reply 26

xCBRx

9

Ah this is good cos will enourage mre poor people to go uni innit? Like Conservaties dont just be for rich people and that yeah? I wouldve got this if i was english haha but im not lol get free tuition anyway :P

Reply 27

4ttari

OP

5

Original post by IrishPerson

is this policy DEFINITELY confirmed?
if not when will we find out?

That's what i im trying to find out too..

Reply 28

jb9191

3

No its not.

Only two motions have been passed in the house of commons. They both went through on Thursday and will be put before the House Of Lords on Tuesday for confirmation.

The two motions were

1. The maximum fee of £9000

2. The lower maximum end fee of £6000 - If universities want to charge above this they need to apply for permission with certain reasons to why they need that extra funding.

Everything else is yet to be decided which is why people should stop panicking. Even those 2 motions above are not exactly set in stone yet.

Plenty of time for a nerd to have a "BOOOM HEADSHOT" moment on Clegg & Cameron.

Reply 29

gemnomnom

12

Original post by sete

The working class aren't entitled to this, its only if your parents basically don't work at all.

From http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Schoolslearninganddevelopment/SchoolLife/DG_4016089

Free school lunches
Parents do not have to pay for school lunches if they receive any of the following:

•Income Support
•income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
•income-related Employment and Support Allowance
•support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
•the Guarantee element of State Pension Credit
•Child Tax Credit, provided they are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual income (as assessed by HM Revenue & Customs) that does not exceed £16,190
•Working Tax Credit during the four-week period immediately after their employment finishes or after they start to work less than 16 hours per week

Reply 30

LawBore

15

Of course it's stupid, but politically it makes a lot of sense.

Reply 31

Emma:-)

Entertainment Forum Helper

19

Original post by chinaberry

Blarg.
This is stupid. They can get loans like the rest of us! Free tuition, what have they done to deserve that? Loads of wealthy middle class parents will elect not to help their children out, for perfectly sensible reasons, and those children will be in the same position as poorer students.
The government shouldn't take it for granted that parents will help you out- what happened to independence after 21?

Yeah- i agree.

Reply 32

AskMeAnything

14

Does anyone else find it hilarious that I bet some of the people in this thread disagreeing were those screaming 'THIS WILL PUT THE POOR OFF UNI', now they're screaming 'ITS NOT FAIR THE POOR WILL GET A BIT OF UNI FREE WHEN I DONT!'. Incredibly, incredibly hypocritical. You're all so self-interested, and you only take up an argument to benefit you.

Reply 33

BambieWambie

1

Excellent. I get free school meals in my sixth form

Reply 34

The Cornerstone

16

The funny thing is that I would of expected this from Labour. Not the Tories!

Reply 35

BambieWambie

1

Original post by sete

The working class aren't entitled to this, its only if your parents basically don't work at all.

Its for the 'under-class - lower class' if you like.

You can live below the poverty line and still not be entitled to this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11975760

Even better! My mum is single, disabled, on benefits. Also, shes in a two bedroom flat on the top floor with my other 3 siblings. I had to move into a hostel.

Reply 36

blue_shift86

i think this is a *******s criterion. I mean what if you don't like school meals but qualify for it? From what I understand, these people would not be eligible for subsidised tuition fees.

Secondly, will it not be the case that under the new system, poor people will be worse off, because they will have to pay back more money (i.e. 27k instead of 9k), and also, the interest payments will kill them. I mean even if the rich kids get loans, their parents will help out, thus reducing interest payments for the toffs, so wouldn't this put them in another significant advantage? I mean, by the time the loan is paid off by a toff and a working class person, the working class person will pay more than the toff because they'd have been paying more interest. It's feudal - like in the olden days when the poor had to give most of their food and money away to the rich, so much so that the poor didn't have enough left to better themselves after food and rent.

I feel what the Tories and Liberals (irony they're in a coalition seeing they're meant to be polar opposites in ideology) are going to lead to social segregation. They're trying to make universities such that the rich go to the russel group and the poor go to the ex-poly's.

Reply 37

blue_shift86

Original post by sete

The working class aren't entitled to this, its only if your parents basically don't work at all.

Its for the 'under-class - lower class' if you like.

You can live below the poverty line and still not be entitled to this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11975760

I couldn't agree with your more. So much for David Cameron's master plans of getting rid of scroungers! This policy on education actually seeds a motivation for people to give up work since they'd be eligible for more funding that way! Tories are stoooopid!

Reply 38

4ttari

OP

5

Original post by AskMeAnything

Does anyone else find it hilarious that I bet some of the people in this thread disagreeing were those screaming 'THIS WILL PUT THE POOR OFF UNI', now they're screaming 'ITS NOT FAIR THE POOR WILL GET A BIT OF UNI FREE WHEN I DONT!'. Incredibly, incredibly hypocritical. You're all so self-interested, and you only take up an argument to benefit you.

HAHA!

Too right mate. :yy:

Reply 39

llys

17

Original post by sete

It is a new policy they brought in.

Students who are entitled to free school meals will get 1 year free tuition if they study at a university charging £6,000, and 2 years free tuition at a universtiy charging £9,000.

Remember this really only effects a really small number of people, of whom, most won't go to university.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/half-of-pupils-on-free-school-meals-cant-read-2155943.html

This may be a dumb question.. but do you know if this only applies to school-leavers (students that went to university straight from school) or also to (possibly mature) students that were on free school meals but took a year or two or three out after school to work?

Free school meals = No tuition fees

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