Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the administrative costs associated with the proposed income threshold for assessing eligibility for free school meals; and what is their estimate of the administrative cost if entitlement were extended to all children in families on Universal Credit.

We have updated our electronic Eligibility Checking System to ensure that these changes do not increase the administrative burden on schools and local authorities. They can continue to check eligibility through this system as before.

We have not made any estimates of the administrative cost to schools and local authorities if entitlement was extended to all children from families receiving Universal Credit (UC). It was never our intention that eligibility should be extended to all children in families on UC and if it was, this would involve a significant increase in the cost to the taxpayer.