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Up to 1.45 million children who are ineligible for free school meals in the UK face going hungry unless rules change in the face of the cost of living crisis.
Close to two million pupils currently receive free school meals, but there is a risk that those who are not may suffer due to parents facing up to the cost of living crisis.
Campaigners are calling for the eligibility criteria to be expanded to all children whose parents received Universal Credit.
This expansion would result in 1 to 1.45 million more children being guaranteed a meal during the school day.
Ministers have been urged to take action on the issue, as millions of households face huge cost of living rises, which could rise by six per cent by Easter.
“Free school meals are a vital line of defence for children growing up in the poorest families,” said Anne Longfield, who was Children’s Commissioner for England until last year.
“We are facing a cost of living crisis that risks pushing many more children into poverty, and rolling out FSM to all families in receipt of universal credit would make a huge difference to thousands of children" Longfield told The i.
Families on universal credit are currently able to claim free school meals for their children if their household income, excluding welfare payments, is less than £7,400 a year.
Similar caps are set in Scotland and Wales, where the devolved governments are also facing pressure over free school meals eligibility.
The £7,400 threshold has not changed in England since 2018, according to Jenna Julius, senior economist at the National Foundation for Educational Research.
She said: “While less well-off households who are currently not in receipt of FSM will increasingly feel the pinch of these increases in spending, it will not impact on their eligibility.”
The latest data on schoolchildren available for free school meals and under-16s eligible for universal credit suggests there are at least a million children on universal credit who do not qualify.
The number of universal credit claimants has risen substantially since that data was released in October 2020.
Despite this, it is not known how many of these children have since become eligible for free school meals.
Azmina Siddique, policy and impact manager at The Children’s Society, said: “The Government should make free school meals available for every family with children aged 16 or under who needs support from universal credit to make ends meet.
"That would ensure another 1.5 million children have a decent meal every school day. We know family budgets are coming under huge pressure and this would be a simple lever for the Government to pull to ease the pressure and quite literally put food on the table for children.”
“We surveyed parents in September 2020 to find out the impact of food costs on families whose children aren’t eligible for free school meals. We found that one-in-seven parents who didn’t meet the low threshold for free school meals were struggling to afford food".
The UK Government said:
The UK Government said: “We have expanded access to free school meals more than any other government in recent decades, extended our national breakfast clubs scheme to feed thousands of pupils, and our Holiday Activities and Food programme will continue supporting children during the Easter, summer and Christmas breaks for three years.
“Throughout the pandemic, schools provided free school meals to eligible pupils, including while they were learning remotely.
"Outside of term-time, we have also ensured vulnerable children and families can access welfare support through billions in investment, including the £500m Household Support Fund, to further support these families".