Universal free school meals: Idealism or the way forward?

Access to a nutritious diet has important health and educational benefits for children and young people. Improved diet increases concentration and can potentially decrease health inequalities.

It would be difficult to find anyone prepared to challenge that statement, and yet in the depths of a cost-of-living crisis we are, it seems, prepared to accept that 800,000 children living in poverty are not eligible for a free meal at school. 

In primary schools in England, children in reception to Year 2 all receive free school meals under the universal infant free school meal (UIFSM) scheme. After that, the eligibility threshold is set at an annual household income of less than £7,400 before benefits. In other words, you have to be extremely poor to qualify. 

Many organisations, including ASCL, are campaigning for government to raise the household earnings threshold for free school meals entitlement to all children and young people (up to the age of 19) from families in receipt of Universal Credit, so that more children and young people living in poverty are eligible for free school meals. A recent Insititute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) report suggests there are 1.7million children who would benefit from scrapping the income cap. The  spring budget provided an excellent opportunity for government to make this change. Unfortunately, it was an opportunity missed.