Oral Answers to Questions

Emma Hardy Excerpts

Monday 6th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Emma Hardy (Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle) (Lab)]

T6. I recently met headteachers across Hull who told me that one way to mitigate the real- terms cuts in school funding would be to auto-enrol all pupils who are eligible for pupil premium when their family receives benefits. Will the Secretary of State please explore how the Department for Work and Pensions can share data with the Department for Education to make that auto-enrolment happen, so that schools in Hull and other deprived areas of England and Wales receive the additional funding that they so desperately need?

[Justine Greening]

I take the hon. Lady’s point. It is important that we work with schools—and indeed parents —to ensure that they get all the benefits and support to which they are entitled. I assure her that work is under way to ensure that children and schools are not underfunded, and are receiving what they should receive.