Written question asked by Fleur Anderson (Labour) on Tuesday, 22 November 2022, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 24 November 2022. It was answered by Nick Gibb (Conservative) on Tuesday, 29 November 2022 on behalf of the Department for Education.
Free School Meals: Inflation
- Question
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To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to increase the free school meals income eligibility in line with inflation.
- Answer
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The Department continues to monitor the consequences of the rising cost of living and is working with other Government Departments to provide support. The Department will continue to keep free school meal (FSM) eligibility under review to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them. In setting a threshold, the Government believes that the current level, which enables children to benefit from FSM, while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one.
The latest published statistics show that around 1.9 million pupils are claiming benefits-related FSM. This equates to 22.5% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021. Together with a further 1.25 million infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meal policy, 37.5% of school children are now provided with FSM.
Secondary information
- Type
- Written question
- Reference
- 93672
- Session
- 2022-23
- Subjects
- Free school meals Inflation
- Link
- View this Written question on www.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2022-11-29 17:01:41 +0000
- URI
- http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2022-23/93672
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- http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2022-23/93672
- In Solr
- https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2022-23/93672