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Pupil Premium 'stealth cut' – £92.5m taken away from disadvantaged primary pupils

Furious headteachers are demanding the government reverses its “stealth cut” to the Pupil Premium budget – which has saved the Department for Education (DfE) almost £90m it was confirmed this week.

The long-running saga is centred on changes to how the Pupil Premium is calculated, with the government now using the October census rather than the January census to allocate funds.

It means any children becoming eligible for Pupil Premium support between October 2020 and January 2021 will not be getting any funding this financial year despite living in poverty.

Research from the likes of the Local Government Association and the Labour Party had put the cuts at anything from £118m to £133m.

And now – after months spent refusing to confirm the financial impact of the changes – the DfE has admitted that the net result of the change is that 62,216 students have missed out on Pupil Premium funding.

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