Changes to free school meal eligibility will create winners and losers
New analysis published by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) has found that slightly more children from low-income households will be eligible for free school meals (FSMs) under universal credit, than under the previous system – an increase of roughly 50,000 children (or four per cent).
Universal credits (UC) will be awarded to families with net earnings under £7,400 a year.
According to the analysis of the new system, about 210,000 children who would not have qualified for FSMs under the former system will gain entitlement under UC.
Meanwhile, about 160,000 of the 1.3 million children who would have qualified under the legacy system will find themselves ineligible under UC.
The number of children with at least one parent in paid work who will be eligible for FSMs will increase by around 140,000. 90,000 children in workless families will lose eligibility for FSMs, largely because their parents have unearned income or assets that disqualify them from UC.
About two-thirds of the children entitled to FSMs are in the lowest-income fifth of households with children. This will remain essentially unchanged after the switch to UC. However, under the UC system – as is the case under the legacy system it replaces – only about half of children in the poorest fifth will be entitled to FSMs.
The government is planning to freeze the £7,400 net earnings threshold in cash terms until 2021–22. If it instead increased this threshold with CPI or earnings, approximately 80,000 or 100,000 more children respectively would be entitled to FSMs in 2021–22 than under the current plan.
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