The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is providing £135m emergency funding for free school meals for state primary school children across the capital for the next academic year.
The one-off funding is designed to help families struggling with the cost of living, as latest stats show the extent of the crisis hitting parents, guardians and carers across the capital.
Latest Polling from YouGov Plc shows that around one in six parents (16 per cent) of children between five and 11 years are going without essentials, including food, electricity or gas, with more than one in three (36 per cent) buying less food and essentials.
More than one in three (36 per cent) parents and guardians of children between five and 11 years say they are ‘financially struggling’, with around one in six (15 per cent) going without basic needs or relying on debt to pay for them.
The Mayor is determined to do all he can to help Londoners struggling with the cost of living crisis, and City Hall has offered every borough across the capital funding to deliver free schools meals to pupils in Years 3-6 of state-funded schools for a year from September.
Currently children in those school years only receive free school meals if they live in households on universal credit earning less than £7,400 a year - after tax and not including benefits, and regardless of the number of children in the family.
Boroughs are set to receive £2.65 per meal in funding, which is higher than the amount they currently receive from Government. The Government has recently increased its funding to £2.53 per meal following the Mayor’s unprecedented intervention.
Following his announcement earlier this year, the Mayor has set aside an additional £5m of funding to act as a contingency for any extraordinary costs associated with the delivery of the meals.
To further support schools, boroughs have been provided with advice on best practice to encourage all parents to complete a pupil premium registration – this ensures that schools continue to receive additional funding from Government based on the number of pupils who currently qualify for free school meals.
