Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of rising household costs on working parents.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises that everyday costs remain too high for many households, including working parents. This is why, at the Budget, the Government took action to bear down on prices and help cut cost of living pressures by targeting everyday expenses.
This includes taking an average of £150 off household energy bills from April 2026, expanding the £150 Warm Home Discount to six million lower-income households, freezing regulated rail fares and NHS prescription fees for one year, and extending the 5p fuel duty cut until the end of August 2026.
The Government is also committed to making renting easier and more affordable. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 will strengthen protections for private renters and help tenants challenge unreasonable rent increases.
Alongside this, the Government is supporting working families by removing the two-child limit in Universal Credit, increasing the National Living Wage to £12.71 per hour from April 2026, extending the £3 bus cap to March 2027, expanding free breakfast clubs, widening free school meals eligibility, and increasing support with childcare costs through Universal Credit.
The Bank of England has cut Bank Rate six times since the election as inflationary pressures have eased, helping to reduce borrowing costs for households.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to support working parents with rising household costs.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises that everyday costs remain too high for many households, including working parents. This is why, at the Budget, the Government took action to bear down on prices and help cut cost of living pressures by targeting everyday expenses.
This includes taking an average of £150 off household energy bills from April 2026, expanding the £150 Warm Home Discount to six million lower-income households, freezing regulated rail fares and NHS prescription fees for one year, and extending the 5p fuel duty cut until the end of August 2026.
The Government is also committed to making renting easier and more affordable. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 will strengthen protections for private renters and help tenants challenge unreasonable rent increases.
Alongside this, the Government is supporting working families by removing the two-child limit in Universal Credit, increasing the National Living Wage to £12.71 per hour from April 2026, extending the £3 bus cap to March 2027, expanding free breakfast clubs, widening free school meals eligibility, and increasing support with childcare costs through Universal Credit.
The Bank of England has cut Bank Rate six times since the election as inflationary pressures have eased, helping to reduce borrowing costs for households.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the annual cost to the public purse of putting a child through secondary state school education.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Annually, the department publishes the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), which includes information on the amount of core schools funding allocated by the department nationally as well as to each local authority. This includes the amount of funding allocated in respect of secondary pupils in mainstream schools, the ‘secondary schools unit of funding’. The DSG for financial year 2026/27 has now been published and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2026-to-2027.
In addition to the funding from the DSG, schools also receive additional school funding annually, for example through the Pupil Premium grant (in respect of pupils eligible for free school meals in the last six years), and capital funding.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's policy paper entitled Giving every child the best start in life, updated on 12 September 2025, whether the review of early years funding will include an assessment of food costs within the funding formula.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
To make sure that the early years (EY) funding system properly supports those children and parts of the country that have higher levels of additional need, the department will review EY funding, including the EY national funding formulae, consulting on a set of changes and publishing full details by Summer 2026.
Within EY, free school meals (FSM) applies to school-based nurseries (SBNs) for children who attend both before and after lunch. As part of the expansion of FSM, the department has announced that children in SBNs whose household is in receipt of Universal Credit, will be eligible for FSM from September 2026.
Beyond the provision of FSM, the statutory guidance makes clear that funding for the entitlements does not cover consumables like meals, so providers can ask parents to pay, provided they are not mandatory or a condition of accessing an entitlements place. As such, the cost of consumables will not fall within the scope of the planned review of EY funding.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy that children who are eligible for free school meals should be automatically enrolled for them.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. Introducing a new eligibility threshold for free school meals (FSM) so that all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit will be eligible for FSM from September 2026 will make it easier for parents to know whether they are entitled to receive free meals. This new entitlement will mean over 500,000 of the most disadvantaged children will begin to access free meals, pulling 100,000 children out of poverty.
The department is also rolling out improvements to the eligibility checking system which will make it easier for local authorities, schools and parents to check if children are eligible for free meals.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of extending free milk eligibility to the end of the academic year in which a child turns five.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Nursery Milk Scheme is a statutory scheme which allows early years childcare settings to reclaim the cost of providing one-third of a pint of milk per day to children under the age of five years old who attend a setting for two or more hours per day. Schools can claim reimbursement from the scheme in respect of their pupils aged under five years old.
There are no plans to extend eligibility for the Nursery Milk Scheme to cover children until the end of the academic year, during which they reach their fifth birthday. Separate legislation allows pupils from lower-income families, and who are eligible for free school meals, to continue to receive free milk at school after the age of five years old.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Restoring Control Over the Immigration System: White Paper, whether families accessing Free School Meals under the No Recourse to Public Funds extension could be subject to penalties of 5 or 10 years under the earned settlement scheme.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Data regarding how many people in the UK are subject to the ‘no recourse to public funds’ condition (NRPF) is currently in development and not ready for release. We will continue to explore what further information on NRPF can be produced. We are unable at this time to provide a specific timeframe for data publication or indeed confirm what will be published.
The earned settlement model is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026. Details of the earned settlement scheme will be finalised following that consultation.
The consultation seeks views on whether there should be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement. Consideration will then be given, if appropriate, to how transitional arrangements may be designed to ease the impact of policy change, especially for individuals or groups already afforded permissions by the previous system.
The final model will also be subject to equality impact assessment, which the government has committed to publish in due course.
Free school meals are not classed as a 'public fund' for immigration purposes. It is the Department for Education who set the eligibility criteria for who can access free school meals.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to introduce an auto-enrolment system for all children eligible for free school meals.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
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. Introducing a new eligibility threshold for free school meals (FSM) so that all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit will be eligible for FSM from September 2026 will make it easier for parents to know whether they are entitled to receive free meals. This new entitlement will mean over 500,000 of the most disadvantaged children will begin to access free meals, pulling 100,000 children out of poverty.
We are also rolling out improvements to the Eligibility Checking System which will make it easier for local authorities, schools and parents to check if children are eligible for free meals.
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what percentage of students who gained the Large Programme Uplift as a result of studying 4 A-levels in 2025 or most recently available year and would be eligible for the LPU under the revised guidance for 2026 to 2027, are (a) female; or (b) eligible for Free School Meals.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Institutions delivering 16-19 education have received the Large Programme Uplift (LPU) in the 2025/26 academic year. There were 6,755 students eligible for the LPU as a result of studying 4 or more A levels, of which:
Of those 6,755 students that attracted the LPU in the 2025/26 academic year due to studying 4 or more A levels, 3,968 (58.74%) would be eligible under the revised guidance for the 2026/27 academic year, of which:
Notes about the data:
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what (a) number and (b) percentage of students who gained the Large Programme Uplift as a result of studying 4 A-levels in 2025 or most recently available year would be eligible for the LPU under the revised guidance for 2026 to 2027.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Institutions delivering 16-19 education have received the Large Programme Uplift (LPU) in the 2025/26 academic year. There were 6,755 students eligible for the LPU as a result of studying 4 or more A levels, of which:
Of those 6,755 students that attracted the LPU in the 2025/26 academic year due to studying 4 or more A levels, 3,968 (58.74%) would be eligible under the revised guidance for the 2026/27 academic year, of which:
Notes about the data: