Nearly seven in 10 children in England whose families are entitled to universal credit are not eligible for free school meals, a new report claims.
Families on universal credit (UC) are much more likely to be food insecure than other households, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said.
Households in England receiving UC must earn below £7,400 a year before benefits and after tax to qualify for free school meals.
This cap for means-tested free school meals means that around 1.7 million pupils in England whose families are entitled to UC – 69% of this group – are not eligible for free lunches, researchers said.
Nearly 30% of families claiming UC were classified as food insecure in 2021/22, six times the rate among families not claiming UC, the IFS report said.
