Teaching unions and head teachers have written to the chancellor and the education secretary calling for free school meals to be extended, as families struggle with the cost of living crisis.
Scotland and Wales have pledged to deliver free school meals to all primary school children and extend breakfast provision.
In England the threshold to access free school meals is a combined household income of £7,400 before benefits, which according to the Child Poverty Action Group means that just under two in five children living in poverty – around one million children - are not eligible for free school meals.
