One in five children eligible for free school meals since pandemic
Fiona Simpson
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
More than 300,000 children became eligible for free schools meals after the start of the first Covid-19 lockdown, government figures show.
The proportion of children eligible for free meals increased by 17.3 per cent in the 10 months between January and October last year, the statistics show.
Some 1,633,698 pupils were eligible for free school meals in October last year - a jump of 302,397 since 23 March 2020 when lockdown restrictions were first introduced.
Over the same time period a year previously, 208,525 children became eligible for free school meals.
The figures reveal that almost a fifth (19.7 per cent) of all school pupils are now eligible for free school meals - an increase of 2.4 per cent compared with January last year.
The North East of England has the highest rates of pupils eligible for free school meals with more than 26 per cent of pupils eligible while 23 per cent of students in the West Midlands are also eligible.
In the South East, just 15 per cent of pupils are eligible for free school meals.
In three local authority areas - Wolverhampton, Manchester and Blackpool - the number of pupils eligible for free school meals increased by five per cent between March and October 2020.
Labour’s shadow children and early years minister Tulip Siddiq said the increase showed “just how devastating this pandemic has been for family budgets”.
The figures also show that more than three-quarters (78 per cent) of schools were using the national voucher scheme to provide free school meals for eligible children on 5 March this year.
The scheme ended on 8 March when schools reopened and had not yet been confirmed to return over the Easter holidays.
Siddiq added: “Four in five schools were using the national free school meal voucher scheme at the start of the month. Yet ministers are scrapping this in favour of a scheme that will provide food support for just four days over Easter and create a postcode lottery in provision.
“The government should be guaranteeing free school meals support to all who need it, including through cash payments, rather than allowing children to go hungry over another school holiday.”
The MP for Hampstead and Kilburn has also written a letter to children’s minister Vicky Ford warning that some children may not be able to access support over the two-week break.
She has called on the government to ensure that:
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All children who are eligible for free school meals can access food support including the option of cash payments over the Easter holidays regardless of circumstances
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Local authorities will be reimbursed for the full cost of providing this support to all eligible children in line with guidance on the cost for delivering this when schools were closed
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No family will receive "woefully inadequate" food parcels of the type distributed in January under any scheme funded by public funds.
