Free school meals for half a million of England’s poorest children
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Hundreds of thousands more children to access means-tested free school meals
- The government has announced a major expansion of the free school meals policy in England, set to begin at the start of the 2026 school year.
- Every child whose household is on universal credit will be entitled to free school meals, a change from the 2018 eligibility criteria of a household income less than £7,400 per year.
- The Department for Education claims the expansion will lift 100,000 Children across England out of poverty and put an extra £500 in parents’ pockets.
- Campaigners and unions have welcomed the move, with the Child Poverty Action Group calling it a “game-changer” and the National Education Union describing it as a “necessary and overdue first step”.
- The announcement follows The Independent’s Feed the Future campaign, which called for free school meals to be extended to all schoolchildren in England from households on universal credit.