Asked by: Robert Goodwill (Conservative - Scarborough and Whitby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an estimate of the cost of (a) extending free school meals to all children with a parent or guardian who is in receipt of Universal Credit and (b) making free school meals universal.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The department does not have plans to assess the cost of changing the current eligibility conditions for free school meals (FSM).
The department continues to monitor the rising cost of living whilst working with other government departments on support surrounding this issue. 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.