Free School Meals

(asked on 22nd January 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of children who are eligible for free school meals in (a) Hartlepool, (b) Hastings and (c) Swindon since the roll out of universal credit in those areas; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 30th January 2019

Information on the number of individual applications made for free school meals through schools or local authorities is not held centrally.

Universal Credit (UC) has been introduced on a phased basis, both geographically, and to different claimant types – initially to single claimants and couples without children, before being made available to families. Universal Credit Full Service has been available to all claimant types, including families, in Hartlepool, Hastings and Swindon as follows:

Area

Date UC full service rollout completed

Hartlepool

7 December 2016

Hastings

14 December 2016

Swindon

14 December 2016

The department collects and publishes data on the number of pupils known to be eligible for and claiming free school meals at local authority level. The number of pupils recorded as eligible and claiming free school meals over this period is as follows:

Area

Local Authority Area

January 2016

January 2017

January 2018

Hartlepool

Hartlepool

3,366

3,450

3,924

Hastings

East Sussex

8,321

8,208

8,497

Swindon

Swindon

3,958

4,006

4,176


This data includes pupils at state-funded nursery and primary schools, secondary schools, special schools and pupil referral units and alternative provision academies and free schools.

Further data is available on free school meals eligibility for local authority area is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2016.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2017.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2018.

There has been a general decrease in the number of children eligible for and claiming free school meals over the last five years as the economy has improved. However, changes to the free school meals eligibility criteria introduced on 1 April 2018 along with the protections in place for children currently eligible for free school meals mean we expect more pupils will be entitled to free school meals by 2022 when compared to the previous criteria.

The total number of pupils eligible for free school meals over the last five years is as follows:

January 2014

January 2015

January 2016

January 2017

January 2018

No. pupils

1,263,055

1,195,448

1,141,784

1,128,183

1,106,495

% pupils

16.3

15.2

14.3

14.0

13.6

Reticulating Splines