Free school meal eligibility under scrutiny

Free school meals are fast approaching a significant crossroads in their 106-year history. As a result of the coalition government’s flagship universal credit welfare policy, a review of the criteria dictating eligibility for the benefit is under way.

Meanwhile, two recent reports – one by The Children’s Society and a joint report from the British Youth Council and Child Poverty Action Group – have focused on issues around take-up and quality.

About 1.5 million children are currently entitled to free school meals, but around 500,000 do not take them up.
In addition, an estimated 700,000 children living below the poverty line miss out on entitlement altogether because their parents are in low-paid or part-time work.

Children are eligible for free school meals if their parents receive one or more of several out-of-work or income-related benefits. But with all benefits to be merged into a single, universal credit payment from October next year, the criteria for so-called “passported benefits”, such as free school meals, will change.

Campaigners want free school meals extended to all children of those in receipt of universal credit, but the government has ruled out such a move, describing it as “simply unaffordable”.

Instead, it is looking to keep the numbers entitled roughly the same, by creating an earnings threshold.

Sam Royston, policy lead on poverty and early years at The Children’s Society, says this threshold is likely to be in the region of £6,000 or £7,000 a year, with entitlement to free meals relinquished if the family income rises above this amount.
This, he says, will create a “cliff edge” for those earning slightly over the threshold, creating a disincentive to work and leaving as many as 120,000 families out of pocket.

“If you had a pay rise, it could leave you significantly worse off overall,” he says. “Families would be better off going to their employer and asking for a wage cut.”

Threshold introduction
The introduction of a threshold would also create a large degree of “changeover”, he says, with some children becoming ineligible for the benefit, while others become eligible.

This would leave schools with the challenge of encouraging a new set of parents to register their children for free school meals, something important not only in ensuring children benefit from a meal, but that schools get their full pupil premium entitlement of £600 a pupil registered for free meals.

Judy Hargadon, chief executive of the School Food Trust, says schools should use participation to improve uptake. “Where children aren’t eating a meal or aren’t registered, we often find that the school is not thinking about what the lunch time experience is for pupils,” she says.

“It is not just about a nutritious lunch, it is about creating an environment where children are able to enjoy sitting down and chatting with their friends. Most of the best schools will have a participation group, either through the school council or the school nutrition action group, or they will conduct surveys.”

One area that has successfully increased free school meal take-up is the London Borough of Islington, which has maintained a universal free school meal policy in its primary schools since 2009. Meals cost the council around £2.5m a year, on top of the £2.7m for those who would be entitled anyway.

Richard Watts, lead member for children and families at the council, says take-up of free school meals has risen to around 85 per cent of the primary school population. About half of primary pupils in Islington are eligible under usual measures.

As a result of the high take-up, issues around stigma have reduced and schools in the borough now receive their full quota of pupil premium.

“Pretty much everyone fills in the form and that removes the stigma and the difficulties with that, which has increased our number of children getting the pupil premium,” Watts says.

More than 1,000 additional children who were eligible, but not registered for free school meals, have now signed up – equating to an additional £600,000 into school coffers each year.

“It’s fair to say head teachers were quite sceptical about the policy. But since they have seen the system working in practice and the extra money they are getting, they have been well and truly persuaded,” Watts adds.



Making entitlement work
Rys Farthing, senior policy and research officer, Child Poverty Action Group

“Latest figures show that 3.6 million children live below the poverty line. For these young people, the £9.40 a week price of school meals is prohibitively expensive.

"Young people whose parents are on out-of-work benefits are entitled to free school meals, but this criteria means around a third of pupils living below the poverty line are not entitled to receive them, because their parents might be in part-time or low-paid work.

"The introduction of universal credit in 2013 will mean that all out-of-work and in-work benefits are combined.

"The imminent redesign of current rules around entitlement presents both opportunities and significant risks. Not all children from low-income families miss out on hot, healthy lunches, with all of the knock-on effects for their health and education.

"But children from lower income households often go hungry and have poorer health outcomes and educational attainment than their better-off peers. Unless entitlement is extended, this will continue.

"Also, if we don’t get entitlement right, the cost of school meals could work against the universal credit’s purpose of ‘making work pay’. Setting an income threshold for entitlement could make families financially worse off for taking a job. Thresholds can mean that getting a pay rise or taking on an extra shift could cost families dearly; if they move just above a threshold, they lose £376 worth of free school meals per child.

"The best way to make sure poorer children enjoy a meal and maintain work incentives is to entitle all families who receive universal credit to free school meals. While this would almost double current entitlement, it is the only way to make sure the scheme works.”