Chris Bryant – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Bryant on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will estimate the cost to the public purse of extending entitlement to school clothing grants via (a) vouchers and (b) cash or cheque to all claimants of universal credit once universal credit has been fully rolled out.

Mr David Laws

There is no national school clothing grant operating currently in England.

Individual local authorities and academies may choose to provide school clothing grants or to help with the cost of school clothing in cases of financial hardship. In such cases, it is for the local authority or academy concerned to decide the criteria upon which pupils are entitled to this support. Local authorities and academies which choose to run such schemes must do so from within their existing delegated budgets.