Question to the Department for Education:

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

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 during the rollout of universal credit, will continue to receive free school meals until the end of universal credit rollout. After this point, those children who were protected – should they still be in school – will continue to be protected until the end of their current phase of education. While we estimate around 50,000 children more will benefit from our proposals in 2022, many more children again will benefit as a result of our transitional arrangements.