More Bad News

England's schools are increasingly divided along class lines, making it harder than ever for the poorest children to succeed, a union leader has warned.

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said "We have schools for the elite, schools for the middle class [SOYMB would use the term middle-income] and schools for the working class," Bousted said that in a "vastly unequal society", only the brightest pupils would escape the lasting effects of inequality.

Middle-class parents were keeping their children away from the most deprived schools, creating clusters of "schools for the dispossessed". This was having a toxic effect on the poorest children, who often needed to be with aspirational middle-class peers to flourish academically. The poorest pupils would not be helped by the creation of more grammar school places, she said, because evidence showed they were less likely than their better-off peers to go to such schools.

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Families with children will be an average of £511 a year worse off from tomorrow. New research by the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) suggests the gain from raising the amount of tax-free income could be outweighed for almost one million families by cuts to tax credits.

And up to 212,000 working couples earning less than £17,000 a year will lose all of their working tax credit unless they increase their hours because it will be withdrawn from those working less than 24 hours a week. A young couple working 23 hours a week with one child and a household income of £15,500 currently receive almost £6,000 in tax credits. Their overall annual income will fall by £2,961 – about 19 per cent – even after the personal tax allowance rise is taken into account. According to the foundation, the impact is even greater for lower- income households because they have more working tax credits to lose.

Gavin Kelly, its chief executive, said: ''Those working under 24 hours a week face the most brutal cuts... if they cannot find extra hours – a real problem given rising under-employment. These huge losses in income will push some families back on to benefits."

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New figures published today reveal nearly four million households are in debt to their energy supplier, owing an average £131. The figure has climbed 4 per cent in the past 12 months, and is 15 per cent higher than in 2008, according to uSwitch. Heating and electricity charges have soared 53 per cent since 2008. Research published by The Independent suggested the number of people who die because they can't afford to adequately heat their homes could be as high as 8,000 a year.

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