According to official figures, the proportion of all pupils eligible for free school meals increased over the the last 12 months from 20.8 per cent in January 2021 to 22.5 per cent in the same month this year.
This is an increase of nearly 160,000 pupils, taking the total number of children who were eligible in January this year to 1.9m.
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The increase is higher among black children, the figures also reveal. Over the same period the rise of eligibility among black Caribbean children was 2.9 per cent. Four in ten children from this ethnic background are now eligible for free school meals, according to the figures.
The highest proportion of eligibility is among children from Irish traveller communities. Just under two thirds of children from this ethnic group are eligible.
The proportion of children from mixed white and black Caribbean heritage is 41.5 per cent.
The period examined in the statistics covers the impact of the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic on families.
However, free school meal eligibility was rising before the health crisis, according to the figures.
Between January 2018 to the same month in 2020 the proportion increased from 13.6 per cent to 17.3 per cent.
While the jump in the rate of eligibility increased at a higher rate during the first year of the pandemic, this latest rise “is in line with those increases seen prior to the pandemic”, according to official analysis of the figures.
Pupils in the North East of England are the most likely to be eligible for free school meals, the figures also reveal. In this region almost three in ten children are eligible.
More than a quarter of pupils in the West Midlands and the North West are eligible. Meanwhile, rates in London and Yorkshire and Humber are also above the average for England.
All infant state school pupils in England up to Year Two can get free school meals during term time. Pupils in Year Three in families that rely on benefits, such as Universal Credit, are eligible, if their income before benefits is below £7,400 after tax.
Organisations supporting vulnerable children have called on the government to provide free school meals to all children from families receiving universal credit in England.
According to the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) around 800,000 children living in poverty in England are missing out on free school meals. This is around one in three of pupils living in poverty.
“We know families are being left to make impossible decisions, with many parents simply unable to afford lunches but desperately not wanting their children to go without,” said Kate Anstey, head of CPAG’s UK Cost of School Day programme.
“Food is vital to children’s health, wellbeing and learning, and the government cannot continue to stand by while children in poverty go hungry at lunchtime.
“No other part of the school day is means-tested in this way – universal free school meals should simply be a fundamental part of going to school.”
