Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government has made an assessment on the potential benefits of the provision of free school meals to all primary aged children in England.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The department does not have plans to assess the effects of changing the current eligibility conditions for free school meals (FSM). However, the department will continue to keep FSM eligibility under review to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them. In setting a threshold, the government believes that the current level, which enables children to benefit from FSM while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one.
The latest published statistics show that around 1.9 million pupils are claiming FSM. This equates to 22.5% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021. Together with a further 1.25 million infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meal policy, 37.5% of pupils are now provided with FSM. Extending FSM to all families on Universal Credit would carry a significant financial cost.