Free School Meals: North East

(asked on 12th March 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment on the effect of the changes to the eligibility of free school meals under universal credit and on child poverty in the North East of England.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 15th March 2018

Our new criteria for free school meals eligibility will increase the number of children eligible for this vital benefit. We have not made specific regional assessments of the effect of these changes. Due to the generous protections we will provide, all children receiving free school meals at the point the threshold is introduced, and all those who gain eligibility as Universal Credit (UC) rolls out, will continue to receive free school meals until the end of UC rollout. After this point, those children who were protected – if they are still in school – will continue to be protected until the end of their phase of education. While we estimate around 50,000 children more will benefit from our proposals once UC rollout is complete, many more children again will benefit as a result of our transitional arrangements.

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