"Home educators deserve fair treatment" - Farron

3.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 9th Jun 2008

Local MP Tim Farron has hit out at Government plans which would deny single parents who educate their children at home the right to receive income support, and would instead see them forced to take jobseekers allowance and actively seek work. Up to a hundred children in South Lakeland receive education at home legally and to a high standard.

Mr Farron believes that home educators should receive benefits to a similar level as those caring for elderly or disabled relatives, which would in fact amount to a lower cost to the taxpayer than schooling a child traditionally.

Tim Farron said:

"It seems that the Government is prejudiced against educating children at home and is seeking to put single parents who home educate into a position where they are forced to abandon their preferred method of education. There are plenty of quality control mechanisms to ensure that parents who educate their children at home do so to a high standard. They should not be forced into more traditional forms of education especially when it may not be in their children's interests.

"I want to see the Government backing hard working parents like this, rather than penalising them."