Free school meals to be extended to 500,000 more children

Any child in England whose parents receive Universal Credit will be able to claim free school meals from September 2026, the government has said.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the move as "a down payment on child poverty", along with other measures that have already been rolled out.

Parents on the credit will be eligible regardless of their income. Currently, their household must earn less than £7,400 a year to qualify.

The government says the change will make 500,000 more pupils eligible, which the prime minister said would "help families who need it most".

Christine Farquharson, associate director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), said the change would, in the long-term, lead to an additional 1.7 million children getting free lunches and about 100,000 children "lifted out of poverty".

However, she said that would not happen in the "short run" and that "today's announcement will not see anything like 100,000 children lifted out of poverty next year".

She added that "other measures - such as lifting the two-child limit - would have a lower cost per child lifted out of poverty".

Kate Anstey, head of education policy at the Child Poverty Action Group, said the extension would cover "all children in poverty and those at risk of poverty", with the current criteria only accounting for around two-thirds of those children.

She said she hoped it was "a sign of what's to come" and the government would take more action.

The Association of School and College Leaders union calling it a "welcome step forward" but adding there was "much more to be done", while the Sutton Trust charity said it was a "significant step towards taking hunger out of the classroom".

Liberal Democrat spokesperson Munira Wilson said the government needed to go further, echoing calls from charities to abolish the two-child benefit cap in next week's spending review.

The government is expected to announce its decision on the cap in the autumn, when it publishes its child poverty strategy.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused Sir Keir of "causing confusion" over the policy during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.

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