UK Government banning home education by the back door.

UK Government banning home education by the back door.
November 11, 2008 in Bigotry, anger, children's rights, definitions, doing it wrong, fuck you, injustice, motherhood, work
In relation to the discussion here, there are measures currently afoot in the UK to make life for single parents, and particularly single parents wishing to exercise their legal right to home educate their children, even more difficult, if not impossible.
It is proposed that Income Support, currently available to single parents until their child’s 16th birthday, be gradually reduced until in two years’ time it will be stopped after the child’s 7th birthday, meaning that single parents will then be forced to instead claim Job Seeker’s Allowance. JSA is a completely different benefit, and to qualify for it you have to constantly prove that you are available, and looking for, work. If you are found not to be doing this, your benefit can be stopped. Here is some further information.
“The following is an extract from a government document entitled Ready For Work: full employment in our generation, issued with minimal publicity in late December 2007 - obviously a good time to bury bad news:
“We intend that, from October 2008, lone parents with older children will no longer be entitled to income support solely on the grounds of being a lone parent. Instead, those able to work may claim jobseeker’s allowance. They will be expected to look for work and, if necessary, acquire the skills they need to do so, in return for personalised support.
“The change will be introduced for lone parents with a youngest child aged 12 or over from October 2008 a youngest child aged 10 or over from October 2009 and a youngest child aged seven or over from October 2010.”
The implications of this massive change in benefit entitlement - that comes in under the Welfare Reform Act 2007 - will obviously be felt by lone parent claimants within the next few years. But it also has a significant impact on council provision - for child care planners and providers, for out-of-school activities, for employment and HR policies, for social work departments, and others.
At present, a lone parent can claim income support for themselves until their youngest child reaches 16. It is arguable that 16 is relatively generous - it could be seen as reasonable to have to seek work as a condition of getting benefit if your youngest or only child is a fit healthy 14- or 15-year-old.
But the government’s proposals go much further than a slight reduction in this age limit. By bringing it down to the child’s seventh birthday in only two years time, it transforms the benefit system for lone parents. Unless they qualify for income support on other grounds (for example, by being a carer, by being medically unfit for work, or by being a foster carer), a lone parent will have to register for work and claim JSA in order to receive an income from the Department for Works and Pensions.
Although there is a lot of talk in the government’s proposals about personalised help and support, anyone who has had experience of the JSA regime knows that there is a gradual tightening-up of eligibility for JSA the longer the claimant stays on that benefit. There may be a presumption from the Jobcentre that suitable child care is available and that the working tax credit system will be available to help with up to 80% of the cost. Some parents may be reluctant to use that child care and some parents may be worried that 10- to 13-year-olds - who are often too old for child care - may be left unsupervised after school.”
That is bad enough for the children who can be in school (and thus out of the way and not so worrisome to the government) during the daytime, but what of those who are home educated? Well, naturally, home-educating single parents, having already been forced to find paid work outside the home, will then be forced to put their children into school. The results could be devastating.
There is a popular misconception that home education is some sort of luxury, where over indulgent parents cosset and mollycoddle their children so that they are not tainted by the school system. It is utter bollocks. Home education is a free choice for all parents and guardians living in the UK - they are not breaking the law, they are not deviants, and they are not mollycoddling their children. Many times, parents end up home educating their children because of bad experiences at school, such as bullying, or because the school cannot adequately meet the child’s needs, as in the case of a child with an autistic spectrum disorder, for example. It is often not the parent’s first choice, but the solution to a problem cause by the school system. And when those parents happen to not have a partner to rely on for a wage, and then they are forced by the government to claim JSA instead of Income Support, and thus are eventually forced to go out to work, what is to become of their children? Parents are expected to abandon their children to the state once more, back to the system which may have caused them trauma and difficulties it has taken them months or even years to recover from, just so that the government can fulfil it’s 80% employment goal.
By the same token, not all home educated children will have had problems in school. Some will never have been to school. Home education is legal in the UK, and is every family’s right, regardless of qualifications, income, or anything else. What these measure amount to is a cutting back of human rights in this country. The law stipulates that home education is legal, but then measures are introduced to make it impossible for some people. If these measures are not successfully overturned, and continue to go ahead, who will be the next target for the government? Having got the single parents into a situation which makes it impossible for them to exercise their legal rights, which ‘brand’ of home educator will be next? And why is the government so obviously frightened of the typically bright, intelligent, personable, capable, mature adults that are produced by home education?