Home educating parents can currently take income support until their youngest child is 16. In October this year new legislation comes into force where once the youngest child is 12, income support will be replaced with job seeker's allowance and the parents told to find a job. In 2010 the age limit for the youngest child will be reduced to 7 years old.
This legislation has outraged many home educating parents and they are now worried that they will have no choice but to get a job and send their children to school. Home education isn't purely an alternative lifestyle choice. Many home educated children previously attended school but were withdrawn for reasons such as bullying, unhappiness, failure to cater for SEN, or problems with teaching style and the curriculum.
State schools are not free and it typically costs the taxpayer £5,000 per year to keep a child at school. Therefore there is no real economic argument to force home educating parents into paid employment and children into state schools. It is a political decision.
What do UKIPpers think of the changes in legislation?
Read more about this here:
Freedom for Children to Grow | The Home Education Campaign
AHED: Action for Home Education
Income Support: Lone Parents: 20 May 2008: Written answers (TheyWorkForYou.com)