Two-thirds of MPs want free school meals (FSM) to be extended to all children in families that receive universal credit, new data released today shows.
According to YouGov findings, surveying a representative of 103 MPs and commissioned by charity The Food Foundation, 64 per cent of elected members either “strongly support” or “tend to support” the measure, against just 14 per cent who do not.
An additional 14 per cent were neither for nor against, and 7 per cent said they did not know.
Currently, universal infant FSM are available for all government-funded schools, offering FSM to pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, but not those in later years in primary school.
Beyond this, free meals are available to those on various benefits, however, those on universal credit in the pupil’s household must have an income of less than £7,400 a year to qualify.
The survey also showed that almost half of MPs (46 per cent) from YouGov’s representative sample supported the idea of extending FSM to all primary school children without means testing.
Asked who they thought bore the most responsibility for helping children in food poverty, 59 per cent of MPs said it fell to parents, with under half (43 per cent) saying it was primarily down to the government.
Further analysis from a separate Food Foundation poll, conducted by children’s research specialist CHILDWISE, found that nearly one in three children in England (30.5 per cent) said they had shared food with friends at school because they didn’t have enough to eat.
Additionally, the survey, which polled 1,000 children aged 7 to 17 in September, found that more than one in five (23 per cent) knew friends who were hungry and did not have enough to eat at school, and 17 per cent of respondents had used a food bank at least once over the summer holidays.
Anna Taylor, executive director of The Food Foundation, said: “We cannot just sit back and let children pay a lifelong price for this cost-of-living crisis, providing more children with free school meals is absolutely essential.”
Speaking at a Westminster conference hosted by The Food Foundation last week, Labour MP Sir Stephen Timms said: “We’re all worried about what’s happening with poverty across the country and the impact on children is particularly worrying.
“Here’s a policy to only benefit children and I think there’s a very strong case.”
The proposal was also echoed by former education secretary Michael Gove last month.
