Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will estimate how many children will become eligible for free school meals in each of the next 5 years under (a) proposal in the Eligibility for free school meals and the early years pupil premium under Universal Credit government consultation and (b) existing rules of eligibility.

As explained in our consultation paper, we have recently brought forward proposals to update the temporary criteria for free school meals eligibility under Universal Credit. In setting these new criteria, we are ensuring that the new arrangements are fair, consistent and simple to deliver. The consultation paper is available to view here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/healthy-pupil-unit/fsm/.

Free school meals are targeted at children who need them most. If all children in families receiving Universal Credit were to become eligible for a free school meal this would result in around half of school age pupils becoming eligible compared to a current rate of around 14%.

Under our proposed new criteria, we estimate that by 2022 around 50,000 more children will benefit from a free school meal compared to the previous benefits system.