We are not talking about your child off school for a day with a cold and you lose your child benefit or are financially penalised

Estelle Morris

The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives also lined up to attack it as nothing more than a gimmick ahead of Thursday's local elections.

Even Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, speaking on BBC One's On the Record programme, was lukewarm about the proposal.

"We need to tackle the truancy - if that is a possibility of how you might deal with it, I would be prepared to consider it as a possibility," he said.

The prime minister is understood to have asked government officials to examine the idea as part of a range of measures to ensure parents take greater responsibility for their children.

The plan was discussed as part of a crime summit at Downing Street earlier this week.

Blair's shock

The aim would be to see whether a financial penalty - like the withdrawal of benefit - could strengthen orders already made by the courts in an attempt to force parents to be stricter with offspring who play truant or commit crimes.

Mr Blair is said to have been shocked to discover that 80% of school children stopped by police in daytime truancy sweeps were accompanied by an adult.

Abbott - Scheme will 'only make the poor poorer'

But Labour MP Diane Abbott has called his proposal "nothing more than a gimmick which will look good on the front pages".

Her backbench colleague Alice Mahon said the "daft" idea - which she blamed on an "overpaid adviser" - would face huge opposition within Labour.

Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, appearing on BBC One's Breakfast with Frost, said: "It's just an announcement to get the press off their backs for five or six days [in the run up] to the local elections."

The plan received a rough ride in the press on Monday, with the Times saying it was uneccesarily cruel and had "blown up in the government's face".

The Independent predicted a backbench rebellion if Labour pressed ahead with it.

Chancellor Gordon Brown and Work and Pensions Secretary Alistair Darling are also reported to be opposed to the idea.

Truancy figures

And Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy predicted the proposal will "die a death".

As the critics lined up on Sunday, Education Secretary Estelle Morris moved to defend the idea, saying parents had responsibilities.

"We are not talking about your child off school for a day with a cold and you lose your child benefit or are financially penalised," she told BBC News.

"We are talking about when parents have been warned again and again."

Taking away child benefit is going to penalise children for which it is intended for the circumstances in which they live

Mike Aaronson Save the Children

Many families, especially those on low incomes, depend on child benefit - �15.75 a week for the first child, and �10.55 for each additional child.

It rises to �17.55 a week for a lone parent with one child.

The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) said it was "short-sighted" of the government to float the possibility it could be cut.

"Parents do have a responsibility for their children but forcing low-income families deeper into poverty is not going to make the job of parenting any easier," said CPAG director Martin Barnes.

A spokesman for the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders warned the idea, if implemented, was more likely to increase youth offending than anything else.

And the charity Save the Children, which launches a campaign against child poverty on Monday, described the suggestion on child benefit as a "blunt instrument".

Director General Mike Aaronson told BBC News: "Taking away child benefit is going to penalise children for which it is intended for the circumstances in which they live."

The Low Pay Unit dismissed the idea as "gesture politics" and said it would be counterproductive in the long run.