More than two million children are now eligible for means-tested free school meals, government data shows.
Schools, pupils and their characteristics statistics published by the Department for Education shows 2,019,509 pupils, 23.8 per cent of the entire school population, are now eligible for free lunches because of their family income.
This is up 6 per cent on last January, and 40 per cent higher than in January 2020.
Only the children of those on certain benefits whose household income is below £7,400 are eligible to claim the meals.
The DfE said the increasing numbers could be explained in-part by transitional arrangements the government put in place when moving people from the old benefits system to universal credit.
