Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of free school meal entitled children not being automatically registered on the levels of (a) relative child poverty, (b) deep poverty, and (c) very deep poverty.

All children in households in receipt of Universal Credit will be eligible for free school meals (FSM) from September 2026. This unprecedented step will put £500 back into families’ pockets in respect of each child each year and lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty, helping to break down barriers to opportunity and tackle the scar of child poverty across our country.

Giving children access to a nutritious lunchtime meal every school day also leads to higher attainment, improved behaviour and better outcomes, meaning they get the best possible education and chance to succeed in work and life. That is why this government is taking action to make it quicker and easier for both families and local authorities to get children signed up for FSM with our new Eligibility Checking System. This will allow parents to check their own eligibility and helps the local efforts we have seen to ensure children receive this support. Improvements we are making to the process for reviewing eligibility for meals will make it simpler than it has ever been to receive this entitlement.

Departmental officials are working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to explore options on further data sharing that can get more families signed up for their entitlements.

Departmental officials are also working with the Department for Work and Pensions to explore options on supporting enrolment through the Universal Credit claims process. The department will engage with local authorities to monitor and assess the impact that these changes are having on the uptake of FSM.

We will closely monitor the impact of the rollout on take-up and are carefully considering measures for improving enrolment in light of the recent announcement.