Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether children who become eligible for free school meals in 2026 will also be eligible for pupil premium funding.

Pupil premium funding is allocated to eligible schools based on the number of:

• Pupils who are recorded as eligible for free school meals (FSM), or have been recorded as eligible in the past 6 years (referred to as Ever 6 FSM),
• Children previously looked after by a local authority or other state care, including children adopted from state care or equivalent from outside England and Wales.

Pupil premium funding is allocated to local authorities based on the number of:

• Looked-after children, supported by the local authority.
• Pupils who meet any of the eligibility criteria and who attend an independent setting, where the local authority pays full tuition fees.

Pupil premium will continue to be allocated on this basis, on the basis of household income below £7,400 (after tax, not including benefits) for the 2026/27 financial year.

We are reviewing how we allocate pupil premium funding in the longer term. We will provide more information in due course.