Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of children in year three and above who are registered for free school meals are from households earning more than £7,400 per year.

In 2018, the Department updated the free school meals (FSM) eligibility criteria to include the earned income threshold of £7,400, for families on Universal Credit. Generous protections were also introduced at this time so that no one would lose their entitlement during the rollout of Universal Credit. These protections were recently extended to March 2025.

The Department has not made a formal assessment of the number and proportion of children in year 3 and above who are registered for FSM and from a household earning more than £7,400 per year.