FSM reform is critical to reviving social mobility

Thirty-six per cent of UK children live in poverty, the highest since records began. This is a national scandal, and the new government must put it right to achieve its opportunity mission. Reforming free school meals is vital to this endeavour.

The forthcoming Free School Meals (Automatic Registration of Eligible Children) Private Members Bill represents a promising shift towards closing these gaps. It aims to automatically register all children eligible for FSM unless the family opts out.

As this bill moves through parliament, the case for automatic enrolment is clear. The current FSM system is fraught with inefficiencies.

FSM eligibility is largely determined by passported benefits like Universal Credit (UC), which qualifies children for FSM based on a stringent £7,400 annual net income cap. Worse still, many children who do qualify remain unregistered, often due to perceived stigma, complex application processes and lack of awareness.

This issue is exacerbated in infant schools, where universal FSM availability discourages parents from registering their children. As a result, almost half a million eligible children miss out on meals each day (up from 245,000 children in 2023).

As a direct result, schools miss out on more than £600 million a year in pupil premium (PP) funding – which could be used for targeted educational interventions.

In addition, it can take several weeks between applying for UC and receiving payments, during which time families are not eligible for FSM, creating a gap in support when the most vulnerable need it most.

The necessary data, legal frameworks and software for automatic enrolment already exist. Some proactive local authorities already streamline registration to reduce administrative burdens. This should be rolled out nationally.

Beyond enrolment, the recent Cost of a School Meal report from School Food Matters highlights the severe funding shortfall in free school meals, which the government currently funds at £2.53 per meal despite an estimated actual cost of £3.16.

The current FSM system is fraught with inefficiencies

This 63p gap forces schools, particularly those in high-deprivation areas, to absorb the difference. This leads to meal budget deficits, catering staff shortages, underinvestment in kitchen equipment and a reliance on lower-quality or ultra-processed foods.

Meanwhile, eligibility thresholds are far too low. The income cap for FSM eligibility has been frozen in cash terms since 2018-19, leaving those most vulnerable to the rising cost of living ineligible.

Child Poverty Action Group show that 900,000 children in poverty, one-third of the total, don’t qualify for FSM. The COVID Social Mobility and Opportunities (COSMO) study found that 57 per cent of households where children went hungry were ineligible for FSM, as were 36 per cent of families using food banks.

Extending FSM eligibility to all pupils whose families are on universal credit could bring around one million new children into eligibility. This would cost between £360 and £540 million, but analysis suggests that it could generate £25.2 billion in economic benefits.

Finally, in an illogical quirk of the system, while many who should be eligible are not receiving support, some who may no longer need it continue to receive it.

Transitional protections ensure children who qualified for FSM since 1 April 2018 retain their entitlement throughout their school years, even if their family income later exceeds eligibility limits.

While this prevents sudden drops in FSM access as families transition to UC, it has also significantly inflated FSM numbers (from 1.2 million in 2018 to 2.1 million today, and projected to rise further) potentially diverting resources from families in severe poverty.

Reviewing these transitional protections would ensure resources are directed where they are most needed, and could also offset the cost of wider reforms.

The financial implications of reform are significant. Automatic registration alone would add £1,455 per primary student and £1,035 per secondary student in PP funding, totalling over half a billion pounds a year.

But these reforms would support better educational outcomes, improved health and enhanced workforce readiness, translating into a more robust and equitable economy.

In short, they are a crucial investment in meeting the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity.