Period Poverty

[TheDevil]

Every school and college can now get free period products

Movements for women's sanitary.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51167487

[Mozz71]

"Is this out of the educational budget?" No, the supplies are provided free.

Naomi, but how can the genuinely needy and the freeloaders be identified when it comes to schoolchildren. I just think, to start with at least, they'll have to look after the genuine and take a hit. As the project continues, perhaps with monitoring and identifying problem areas, a more direct approach can be taken.

[Mamyalynne]

O_G an Optical Voucher for a child often leds to a free pair of glasses depending where you shop.

As a child mine were always the bog standard NHS type, which actually came fashionable many years later.

https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/help-with-health-costs/free-nhs-eye-tests-and-optical-vouchers/

[Deskdiary]

This is just bananas.

If (and I think it's a bloody big if) a parent/parents truly cannot afford to supply their child with this most basic of necessities, then they are neglectful.

CB for the first child is £20.70 a week. A 20 pack of Asda tampons is 80p.

[sherrardk]

There has obviously been a need identified and a solution put in place. The way some people are quibbling about it, you’d swear they’d been asked to pay for the scheme.

[Deskdiary]

Personally I couldn't give a tinker's cuss whether it's brought in or not, but I absolutely refuse to believe that any parent with even a modicum of parental conscientiousness, would allow their child to go without, and therefore those that say they cannot afford it are just simply bad parents whose primary thoughts are about themselves rather than the wellbeing of their child.

[Canary42]

What with Paltrow's vagina, and now periods, this gets more like Mumsnet every day.

[runs and hides]

[maggiebee]

You can bet your bottom dollar that if it was men who required sanitary products then they would be free. As a start they should be tax free.

[barry1010]

Many years ago women could get sanitary towels free on the NHS. The huge big pads that were worn with a belt. It was stopped because the system was abused with women getting them just for the cotton wool that was inside.

[New Judge]

//"Is this out of the educational budget?" No, the supplies are provided free.//

Really? Which benevolent manufacturer of these goods is dishing them out free of charge? Of course they are not “free”. They may be free of charge to those who use them, but they are not free.

//The way some people are quibbling about it, you’d swear they’d been asked to pay for the scheme.//

They are being asked to pay for it (well those of us that pay tax are). As above, they are not free. Whatever budget the cash comes from ultimately it comes from the taxpayer.

//As a start they should be tax free.//

That is a different argument to providing them free of charge but they are not free of VAT because the EU tax laws do not allow it.

Frankly this scheme is preposterous. Parents receive child benefit to help support their children but even without that, the responsibility is that of parents to provide their children with necessities. To suggest that they cannot afford to provide these items when, as explained, they are quite inexpensive, when those same parents roam around with expensive phones clamped in their hands, with tattoos and piercings aplenty and when they pay other people to make them a cup of coffee is frankly insulting to the intelligence.

[Ryzen]

Its great to see my £3000 per year council tax being spent wisely!!

[Old_Geezer]

There's the nub. On the face of it, it sounds charitable & kind; but we have a welfare state so why are there any, let alone all, in such need ? All very strange.

[Mozz71]

NJ, they're free insomuch as the funding does not come out of the school's education budget.

[Ryzen]

Business opportunity here lads......self identify as a girl...pocket a few boxes of tampons ....flog them to your mum..kerrrching.

[Mozz71]

Perhaps the way around it is to keep discrete records as to which pupils are using the facility and then deal with families after, for example, 5 times. At that point, the parents are spoken to (or something) to find out if there are genuine money problems or a case of parental neglect.

[New Judge]

//NJ, they're free insomuch as the funding does not come out of the school's education budget.//

From the BBC report:

//The government is giving each school a set amount of money to spend on products in 2020//

So how does that make them "free" then? The government has no money. All it spends either comes from the taxpayer or is borrowed with the loan being serviced by the taxpayer.

[Ryzen]

Brilliant idea Mozz....we could call it the Periodic Table!!

[Mozz71]

NJ, I was incorrect to say it was free, what I meant was that it was not coming out of individual school's budgets as they currently are.

[Mozz71]

//Brilliant idea Mozz....we could call it the Periodic Table!!//

Winner.

[webbo3]

Sanitary products should be free in schools but thats it, they are avaliable in poundland for .....£1.
nothing is free, someone is paying for it.

[Ellipsis]

I wonder how many people arguing against these free essential sanitary products have used free toilet paper in public conveniences.