Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage eligible families to apply for free school meals.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We have now announced that we are extending free school meals (FSM) to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. This will lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty and put £500 back in families’ pockets. This decisive action will support parents and improve lives ahead of the Child Poverty Strategy coming later this year.

We have set aside over £1 billion in funding over the multiyear spending review period to cover additional meal costs. This is new money, as opposed to funding within existing school budgets.

Making all children in households claiming Universal Credit eligible for FSM makes it straightforward for parents to know whether they are eligible. We are supporting this by taking forward a programme of work including improvements to our own systems that will make applying for FSM easier than it’s ever been.

This includes improvements to the Eligibility Checking System to allow parents and schools to check their own eligibility for FSM independently from their local authorities. We are also working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to explore legal gateways that could enable data sharing to improve local authorities’ ability to undertake local action to improve the targeting and delivery of FSM.