Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many students receiving free school meals (1) are children of working parents, and (2) have also received food parcels from a food bank in the previous 12 months.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The information requested is not held centrally.
To be eligible to receive free school meals (FSM), a pupil or their parent must be in receipt of any one of the following listed benefits and must make a claim to the school for FSM:
Income Support
Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act (1999)
The guaranteed element of Pension Credit
Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
Working Tax Credit run-on: paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
Universal Credit: if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get).
We do not collect or hold data on the benefit which has qualified a pupil for FSM, therefore we are unable to identify those in receipt that may be in working households. We also do not collect any data on the number of pupils who may have received a food parcel from a food bank.
The government believes there is a need for more robust statistics in order to better understand the trend in food insecurity. Building a better understanding of household food needs will help ensure we’re targeting support to those who need it most. This is why we have worked with food insecurity experts, the Office for National Statistics, and the Scottish Government to introduce a new set of food security questions in the Family Resources Survey from April 2019.
This means that from spring 2021, we will be able to monitor the prevalence and severity of household food insecurity at a national level, and for specific groups to better understand the drivers of food insecurity and identify which groups are most at risk.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of changes to the criteria for free school meals eligibility in 2018; and how many students now receive free school meals compared to the number who received them before these changes took place.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
I refer the noble Lord to the answers I gave on 6 February 2019 to Question HL13093 and Question HL13094. I will also refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave on 20 February 2019 to Question HL13492.
Under the new eligibility criteria that we introduced in April 2018, we estimate that more pupils will benefit from free school meals (FSM) by 2022, compared with the previous criteria. In addition, generous transitional protections were put in place to ensure no child will lose their eligibility for FSM during the change to the new criteria.
Under the benefits-based criteria, to be eligible to receive FSM, a pupil or their parent must be in receipt of any one of the qualifying benefits and must make a claim to the school for FSM. The qualifying criteria includes benefits for both out of work and low-earning families. The full eligibility criteria is attached and also available here: https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether EU students enrolling on higher education courses in England in the 2020–21 academic year will be eligible for home fee status and financial support.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
The department recognises that staff and providers are concerned about what EU exit means for study and collaboration opportunities.
To help give certainty, on 28 May 2019, the department announced guarantees on student finance for EU nationals. EU nationals (and their family members) who start a course in England in the 2020/21 academic year or before will continue to be eligible for ‘home fee’ status and student finance support from Student Finance England for the duration of their course, provided they meet the residency requirement. These guarantees are not altered if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to set out the (1) fee status, and (2) loan eligibility, of EU undergraduate students commencing courses at English higher education providers in the 2020–21 academic year.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
The department recognises that staff and providers are concerned about what EU exit means for study and collaboration opportunities.
To help give certainty, on 28 May 2019, the department announced guarantees on student finance for EU nationals. EU nationals (and their family members) who start a course in England in the 2020/21 academic year or before will continue to be eligible for ‘home fee’ status and student finance support from Student Finance England for the duration of their course, provided they meet the residency requirement. These guarantees are not altered if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.