The deadline for schools to complete checks on how many pupils are eligible for free school meals under the expanded scheme has been extended again. Schools will now have until 2 November to complete free school meal checks for the autumn census, a month later than the rest of the data is due. From the start of this term, all pupils who have at least one parent or carer receiving universal credit will be eligible for the meals, regardless of their total household income. Before only households with a pre-benefits household income of less than £7,400 qualified. The government estimates more than 500,000 extra pupils will become eligible after the change. The Department for Education told schools in May to estimate before September how many extra pupils would receive FSMs, and send this to their local council via a new checking system. This would “allow all pupils to be ready to receive FSM from the start of the autumn term”. But in July the department admitted this was a “significant undertaking”, and urged schools to continue checks into the start of the academic year if they hadn’t already been completed. It added that arrangements for those already eligible would not be affected while checks were completed. ‘One-off arrangement’ The census deadline for free school meals data has now been pushed back by a month – from 1 October to 2 November. An update published on Wednesday said this was a “one-off arrangement” for the autumn 2026 census “designed to support successful implementation of the FSM expansion and new checking arrangements”. The rest of the census will remain due by 1 October. School food campaigner Andy Jolley said it was an “unprecedented” move. “The whole point of having a census day is to get a snapshot of that one day,” he said. “You can’t just keep on updating the data until you get the results you need. “The DfE belatedly realised that rechecking everyone via a new system is not achievable in the timeframe.” Pepe Di’Iasio, the general secretary of the Association for School and College Leaders, said the extension was welcome. “The DfE has already acknowledged that this work is a significant undertaking for schools…we’d encourage the government to continue looking at ways in which this system can be simplified in order to reduce the workload burden on schools.” The DfE was asked how many schools are yet to complete the free school meal eligibility checks, but declined to comment.