Free school meals warning to parents ahead of benefit being given to half a million kids

Students who are eligible for free school meals should be automatically registered to ensure no child misses out, a think tank has demanded.

Parents across the country face different requirements in applying for free school meals which is creating "inequalities" in accessing them, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) said.

In some local authorities, parents are required to make their own application while facing significant barriers and if not found eligible at the time must reapply when circumstances change. Other local areas keep an eye on whether a child becomes eligible and sign them up as soon as they are entitled, without relying on parents sharing details or making an application.

It comes after Keir Starmer last week announced that more than half a million children will become eligible for free school meals after a major expansion of eligibility rules. The PM unveiled plans to extend the lifeline benefit to all kids in families who get Universal Credit (UC) in England, in a move that could save parents up to £500 a year.

Currently, only households on UC who earn below £7,400 a year qualify for free school meals. The expansion, which will come into force in September 2026, marked a victory for the Mirror's long-running campaign to widen provision to stop children being too hungry to learn.

But concerns have been raised that many children will not actually receive the free hot lunch as they might not be registered. The EPI said despite efforts to enrol kids, issues around language barriers, digital access and stigma are preventing kids from benefiting from the system.

Some local authorities, who already have auto-enrolment, discovered “large numbers” of eligible children were not registered before they introduced the system.

The Education Policy Institute’s paper, funded by The Nuffield Foundation, calls on the Government to introduce a national auto-enrolment scheme to ensure all eligible families are registered for free school meals.

It said: "Despite this expansion in FSM (free school meals) eligibility, without further action from the Government, children may continue to miss out on the free meals they are entitled to. The barriers to registration and differences in registration practices across LAs means children still face inequalities in access to free meals."

The report added: "In terms of barriers families face in applying to FSM - including English as an additional language, stigma, confusion about eligibility - auto-enrolment would largely eradicate these issues."

The report also found that some children who attend maintained nurseries before and after lunch are missing out on free meals to which they are entitled.

An additional 77,700 children became eligible for free school meals in the past year, according to recent data published by the Department for Education. More than one in four (25.7%) pupils in England were eligible for free school meals in January, the equivalent of 2.17 million children - up from 24.6%, or 2.09 million, in January 2024.

The Liberal Democrats have been piling pressure on the Government to auto-enrol eligible children for free school meals.

Munira Wilson, the party’s education spokeswoman, said: “We were heartened last week to see the Government finally listen to so many campaigners - including Lib Dems - by expanding free school meals to all children in poverty. This report rightly identifies the next piece of the puzzle: the many, many children missing out on the meals they are entitled to.

“It’s heartbreaking to think that thousands of families are missing out on transformative help that they might not even know their children are eligible for. We urge the Government to take this next common-sense step, listen to Liberal Democrats once again and introduce auto-enrolment for all kids on free school meals.”

Dr Kerris Cooper, senior researcher for early years and inequalities at EPI, said: "Our research shows that while the extension of free school meal eligibility is a very positive step, more needs to be done to ensure that all children entitled to free meals can actually access them.

"Introducing national auto-enrolment and including children in early education would enable this expansion in FSM eligibility to more meaningfully extend access to more children in poverty."

Pepe Di'Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: "Moving to a national system of auto-enrolment would be the next logical step to ensure that everyone who is now eligible under the new criteria will actually receive a meal and the intended benefits."

He added: "We see no reason why a national system of auto-enrolment cannot be established relatively straightforwardly.”

Last week, education minister Stephen Morgan told MPs in the Commons that the Government would be working to make it easier for people to apply. He said the announcement on expanding free school meals was a "significant, straightforward process for parents to know whether they are eligible".