Daily roundup: Hardship fund, military families and free school meals

A hardship fund worth £180m a year will be abolished from 2015 as part of the latest Welfare Reform Act, the Guardian reports. The Department for Work and Pensions fund is used to help vulnerable people in emergency or crisis situations, and the government will recommend that those affected apply instead for government-sponsored loans.

The parliamentary defence committee is to review the support offered to the families of armed forces personnel as part of its new inquiry into military casualties. The committee is to look at the support services available to families of servicemen and women who are bereaved or severely injured. It follows concerns about the number of people who may go on to develop severe and life-limiting, physical, mental health, alcohol or neurological problems. The deadline for submission is 21 February. 

Scottish schoolchildren look set to join English students in receiving free school meals for the first three years of school, the BBC reports. Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, is expected to announce the plans in a debate today, following campaigns from organisations including Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland and Save the Children.
 
Charities Free the Children and The Transformation Trust are to help deliver the LifeSkills education and work support programme developed by banking giant Barclays. The charities will provide young inspirational speakers to talk to large student groups about the LifeSkills programme, and be responsible for the planning of the sessions. LifeSkills is designed to give young people aged 11-19 access to the advice, support and opportunities to get ready for the world of work, through classroom activities orvoluntary sector led workshops.

A council committee has recommended that Peterborough council postpone plans to close children’s homes in the city until “further alternatives” have been found, the Peterborough Telegraph reports. The council plans to convert its 15 centres into four “super centre hubs” in order to save £1.2m a year, but other options - including allowing community groups to run the existing centres - have been suggested during the council’s consultation on the plans.

The government hopes to instill military-style discipline in state schools through recruiting ex-soldiers as teachers and boosting the number of cadet force units in schools by a third, the Telegraph reports. At least £19m will be spend on on the schemes, which will include a fast-track Troops to Teachers course for ex-servicemen without undergraduate degrees.