NASUWT welcomes call to abandon tax credit cuts
The NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in the UK, is proud to sponsor Child Poverty Action Group’s (CPAG) 50th anniversary lecture, which has been held today in Westminster.
The NASUWT believes that poverty is continuing to blight the lives and life chances of too many children and young people and welcomes the keynote speech made at the event today by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling on the Government to abandon its plans to cut tax credits.
Chris Keates, NASUWT General Secretary, said:
“The fact that the UK has over 3.7 million children living in poverty is scandalous. The planned cuts to tax credits will only exacerbate the problem.
“There is a direct correlation between poverty and educational underachievement. Teachers and support staff are being left to pick up the pieces of callous fiscal and social policies.
“Every day teachers are witnessing the immense impact of poverty on children and young people’s ability to learn.
“Three-quarters of teachers recently surveyed by the NASUWT say they have witnessed more and more children coming to school too hungry to concentrate and without clothing and footwear appropriate to the weather conditions.
“Evidence shows increasingly that too many young people are now choosing subject options on the basis, not of their skills and aspirations for the future, but on the basis of whether their parents can afford the books, equipment and other resources a particular course demands.
“Deregulation and increased freedoms and flexibilities given to schools are resulting in access to more and more educational opportunities being based on parents’ ability to pay.
“The Chancellor must recognise the devastating impact which his planned cuts to welfare will have on the life chances of children and young people.”
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