Quarter of a million to be priced out of education in changes to benefits system

From September, the government will stop funding education for people on 'inactive' benefits, (which include income support, working families' tax credit and housing benefit). UCU said there is no logical reason to deny people on benefits access to the one thing that is likely to improve their life chances and get them off benefits.
 
The study of college students on benefits, conducted by the Association of Colleges (AoC), estimates that 250,000 people will be hit with fees of between £500 and £1000 a year and around three-quarters (185,000) of them will be women.
 
UCU said that despite the best efforts of the AoC, no one really knows what the full damage of the government's changes will be. Some experts say the number of people affected will be closer to 300,000*. The union has tried asking the government, as have a number of MPs, but the government has yet been able to give a proper answer.
 
UCU said it was shocked that the government does not know what impact its changes will have or how many people will be affected. The union warned that pushing ahead with plans will punish those who most need help and will do little to alleviate the burden on taxpayers.
 
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'The AoC should be congratulated for trying to get to the bottom of how many people will lose access to education under the government's changes to the benefits system. The most shocking element here is that the government is pushing ahead with these changes, despite not knowing itself what the damage will be.
 
'The AoC estimates that around a quarter of a million will miss out, but other experts have put the figure as high as 300,000. It looks as though women and lone parents will be amongst those hit the hardest. There is no logical reason for denying people on benefits access to the one thing that is likely to improve their life chances and get them off benefits.
 
'The government should be making radical changes to help people into education, not slashing their benefits to give them less chance of acquiring the skills needed to get them back in the jobs market. The government cannot simply push ahead with plans that will punish those who most need help, and that will do little to alleviate the burden on taxpayers, when it doesn't know what their full impact will be.'

* The government is putting training out of reach of those who need it most, Guardian Nick Linford, managing director at Lsect, a company specialising in post-16 funding, performance and data, and author of The Hands-on Guide to Post 16 Funding estimates that that around 25% of adult provision, or 300,000 adults, will be affected.