Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the carry forward of self-employed losses in universal credit can be used to reduce earned income for the purposes of the £7,400 per annum free school meals threshold in England.

For determining eligibility for free school meals, we will assess the earnings of self-employed people based on their actual annualised net earned income, rather than the assumed earned income of the minimum income floor, over a period of up to three months. Where families’ actual annualised net earned income is below the £7,400 annual threshold, their children will be eligible for free school meals.