All children living in households in receipt of universal credit will be eligible for free school meals from the start of the 2026 school year, the Department for Education has announced.
The expansion means that children whose household previously received universal credit but had (after tax and deductions) will no longer miss out on FSM from September 2026.
The government said that the expansion will benefit more than half a million children, while lifting 100,000 children across England out of poverty. Vlog has asked the DfE for sources for these figures amid concern that the actual impact of the policy could be more limited.
‘Giant step’
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said that the move is a “giant step” towards ending child poverty.
“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,” she said.
The £7,400 cap was introduced in 2018 by the Conservative government and has not changed since, to be in line with inflation.
Transitional protections were also established in 2018 to ensure that pupils who gained FSM eligibility would not lose it while universal credit was adopted.
The DfE has announced that those protections will continue until September 2026, when the new universal credit eligibility rule will be adopted, “meaning FSM funding is focused on pupils in families in receipt of universal credit who most need it”.
Numbers affected may not be ‘significant’
Commenting on the phasing out of those protections, Dr Tammy Campbell, director for early years, inequalities and wellbeing at the Education Policy Institute, said: “To the best of our knowledge, the Department for Education has not fully assessed the number of children who will cease to be eligible for FSM as a result of the conclusion of transitional protections.”
She added: “It is possible that the extension of eligibility will largely serve to balance out the cessation of transitional protections, rather than making significant numbers of children newly eligible.”
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that in the longer term, the policy will cost around £1 billion (), benefit 1.7 million more children and lift 100,000 out of poverty.
However, the think tank cautioned that due to the phasing out of transitional measures, the short-term costs and benefits were likely to be far more limited.
Christine Farquharson, IFS associate director, said that the policy will cost around £250 million a year, “benefit considerably fewer pupils (the government’s estimate is 500,000 children)” and “not see anything like 100,000 children lifted out of poverty next year”.
Ms Farquharson added that “if the government’s main interest is to reduce child poverty, there are other measures - such as lifting the two-child limit - that would have a lower cost per child lifted out of poverty”.
‘Two-tier’ pupil premium
Pupil premium cash worth up to £1,480 is currently provided to schools for each pupil who has been eligible for free school meals at any point over the past six years.
The DfE said that schools and local authorities will continue to receive pupil premium and home-to-school transport extended rights funding “based on the existing free school meals threshold” rather than the expanded criteria.
Free school meals campaigner Andy Jolley said that, while the overall move to expand FSM eligibility was a “bold step” that demonstrates the government’s commitment to eradicating child poverty, there “will be concerns in schools around the creation of a two-tier system” of pupil premium funding.
Carl Cullinane, director of research and policy at the Sutton Trust, said that “in an ideal world, these pupils would also become eligible for pupil premium funding…However, we are sensitive to the tough financial realities currently facing the government”.
‘Simplified’ sign-up - but no auto-enrolment
The DfE said that it expects the majority of schools to allow parents to apply for FSM before the start of the 2026 school year by providing their national insurance number to check their eligibility.
Mr Cullinane said that “while the plans fall short of introducing full auto-enrolment, which would ensure all those eligible for meals can claim them, the proposed measures simplify the process and are likely to result in increased take-up”.
The most up-to-date indicates that there were around 2.1 million pupils known to be eligible for FSM in England, 24.6 per cent of state-funded pupils.
Still ‘detail to be worked through’
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said the announcement was “very welcome” and that the existing “very low income cap…means many children living in poverty are ineligible” for FSM.
He added that the NAHT would like to see the government introduce auto-enrolment “so no child entitled to a free meal misses out”.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that the announcement is “great news” and “a positive statement from the government on tackling the scourge of child poverty.”
He added: “There’s some detail to be worked through on exactly how this transition will work and we look forward to talking with the government about that.”
The secretary of state has also confirmed that ministers are set to review school food standards alongside the FSM extension, something experts told Vlog was needed last year.
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