All children from households eligible for universal credit will be offered free school meals in what the prime minister has hailed as a “historic moment”.
But schools will not receive additional pupil premium funding for the children who become eligible for free lunches as part of the expansion.
The Department for Education estimates over 500,000 more pupils will be eligible for free school meals under the expansion, and claims it will lift 100,000 children out of poverty.
At present, only families with a household income below £7,400 can claim free lunches. Education charities and unions have long called for an extension of the scheme, as at present even some children in poverty lose out.
But ministers have not said where the funding is coming from for the expansion, which will come into force from 2026.
However, the government is expected to make a large saving as a mechanism put in place to stop pupils losing free meals eligibility during the universal rollout ends next year.
This may also mean a much smaller net rise in the numbers eligible for free lunches.
‘A truly historic moment’
Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “Feeding more children every day, for free, is one of the biggest interventions we can make to put more money in parents’ pockets, tackle the stain of poverty, and set children up to learn.
“This expansion is a truly historic moment for our country.”
The DfE said it expected “the majority of schools will allow parents to apply before the start of the school year 2026, by providing their national insurance number to check their eligibility”.
School food campaigner Andy Jolley said the extension was a “really positive move by [education secretary] Bridget Philipson that will help many families out of poverty.
But he warned it was a “missed opportunity to introduce auto-enrolment.
“There is a risk some families will fall through the gap and not register, whilst schools will be concerned there is a new expectation on them to process parents’ national insurance details.”
But no extra pupil premium cash
And government has confirmed schools and councils will only get pupil premium and home to school transport extended rights funding based on the existing free school meals threshold.
It means those pupils becoming eligible under the expansion next year will not attract the funding of up to £1,480 a year.
Pupil premium cash is paid to schools for every pupil who has been eligible for free school meals at any point in the previous six years.
Dr Tammy Campbell, of the Education Policy Institute, said there did “not appear to be a clear rationale from government as to why the new free school meal eligibility criteria will not be reflected in pupil premium eligibility.
“The government is clear that these children are growing up in difficult circumstances. As such they are more likely to have lower attainment and benefit from additional support in school.”
Russell Hobby, CEO of Teach First, said without the extra pupil premium funding, “schools miss out on essential resources that could further support pupils’ academic progress and wellbeing”.
Carl Cullinane, director of research and policy at the Sutton Trust, said “in an ideal world these pupils would also become eligible for pupil premium funding, to allow schools to provide them with wider educational support.
“However we are sensitive to the tough financial realities currently facing the government. Ultimately, feeding more children from homes that are eligible for Universal Credit, and are therefore the most likely to suffer from food poverty, is the right thing to do.”
Some pupils will lose eligibility
The government has not said how much it expects the FSM expansion to cost. Based on the current funding rate of £490 a year, feeding 500,000 more pupils would cost £254 million.
But the Treasury is expected to make a big saving when transitional protections introduced when universal credit was rolled out come to an end.
The arrangements have meant that since 2018, any pupil that would have lost their eligibility because their household breached the £7,400 earnings threshold has kept receiving meals until the end of their current school phase.
The protections have already been extended several times and were due to end this year, but the government announced today they have extended them again until 2026.
“We will then end protections altogether, meaning FSM funding is focused on pupils in families in receipt of UC who most need it,” the DfE said.
Campbell welcomed the expansion of free school meals, but warned the DfE “has not fully assessed the number of children who will cease to be eligible for FSM as a result of the conclusion of transitional protections.
“It is possible that the extension of eligibility will largely serve to balance out the cessation of transitional protections, rather than making significant numbers of children newly eligible.”
Costs and benefits ‘smaller’ in short-term, says IFS
The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimated that in the long-term, the extension would cost around £1 billion and benefit 1.7 million children, and “would see around 100,000 children lifted out of poverty”.
But in the short run, “both the costs and the benefits of this policy are likely to be much smaller” because of the transitional protections.
“The ultimate impact of these transitional protections is that many more children are currently receiving free school meals than would otherwise be the case,” the think tank said.
The government’s prediction that around 500,000 will benefit “implies a total short-run cost of £250 million”.
This is “less than a third of the long-run cost and impact of this policy. But it also means that today’s announcement will not see anything like 100,000 children lifted out of poverty next year”.
The announcement, ahead of next week’s spending review, follows reports the government’s wider child poverty strategy has been postponed until at least the autumn.
Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, called the FSM extension a “a downpayment on our child poverty strategy”. No date has been set for its release.
The government has also confirmed today that it is revising the school food standards, as reported by Schools Week last year.
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