urged

Dock truants' child benefit, ministers urged

Parents of children in England who persistently truant should have their child benefit cut, according to a key government adviser on school behaviour.

Behaviour tsar Charlie Taylor says unpaid truancy fines should be recovered directly from child-benefit payments in a crackdown on absenteeism.

The latest figures show 400,000 children were persistently absent from England's schools in the past year and missed about one month of school each.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17705238