Government roll-out of Free School Meals for Universal Credit families receives local MP’s endorsement

Crawley MP, Peter Lamb, has come out in support of the Labour Government’s plan to provide a nutritious free school meal to an extra half a million more children, putting £500 back into parents’ pockets for every child.

The Government’s announcement follows on from a private members bill Peter Lamb introduced earlier this year, the Free School Meals (Automatic Registration of Eligible Children) Bill, which seeks to ensure all eligible children—previously those in families with a combined household income of less than £7,400—are automatically enrolled for free school meals.

House of Commons Library data shows that 8,540 Crawley children are living in households claiming Universal Credit and will now be automatically enrolled, up from 4,351 currently in receipt of a free school meal.

The unprecedented expansion will lift 100,000 children across England completely out of poverty, with access to a nutritious meal during the school day also proven to lead to higher educational attainment and improved behaviour.

The historic expansion of free school meal eligibility comes on top of targeted support for families hit hardest by the cost-of living crisis, increases in the National Minimum Wage, support for 700,000 families through the Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit Deductions, and the publication of the Child Poverty Taskforce’s ten-year-strategy later this year.

Peter Lamb, MP for Crawley, said:

“Over a third of Crawley’s children are living in poverty, a figure which increased massively under the last Government. The desperate need to fix this was one of my main motivations for running for Parliament last year.

“It is one of the most basic expectations of a civilised society that we will not allow children to go hungry. I moved my private members bill on free school meal auto-enrolment earlier this year in the hope of helping to raise families out of poverty and I am delighted to see that the Government has heeded the call.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:

“Working parents across the country are working tirelessly to provide for their families but are being held back by cost-of-living pressures.

“My government is taking action to ease those pressures. Feeding more children every day, for free, is one of the biggest interventions we can make to put more money in parents’ pockets, tackle the stain of poverty, and set children up to learn.

“This expansion is a truly historic moment for our country, helping families who need it most and delivering our Plan for Change to give every child, no matter their background, the same chance to succeed.”

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said:

“It is the moral mission of this government to tackle the stain of child poverty, and today this government takes a giant step towards ending it with targeted support that puts money back in parents’ pockets.

“From free school meals to free breakfast clubs, breaking the cycle of child poverty is at the heart of our Plan for Change to cut the unfair link between background and success. “We believe that background shouldn’t mean destiny. Today’s historic step will help us to deliver excellence everywhere, for every child and give more young people the chance to get on in life.”