Sharon Hodgson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2015 to Question 11372, how many additional children are now in receipt of free school meals since the changes made to her Department’s eligibility checking system.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The eligibility checking system has been revised and updated on a number of occasions, for example to reflect that universal credit had been added to the list of entitling benefits in 2012. Since 2010, the number of pupils entitled to, and claiming for free school meals has decreased from 1,212,320 (16.2%) to 1,198,494 (15.1%) in 2015. We expect the proportion of children eligible for, and claiming free school meals to continue to decrease as the economy continues to improve.