Another 300,000 pupils have become eligible for free school meals between January 2020 and 2021, new government figures published today reveal.

A total of 1.74 million pupils were from families with incomes low enough to qualify for free lunches in January, the Department for Education statistics show.

That takes the proportion up to 20.8 per cent compared to 17.3 per cent last January, before the pandemic hit the UK, when only 1.44 million pupils were eligible for free school meals. It amounts to a 21 per cent rise in the space of a year. 

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The new figures are likely to reignite criticism of the Department for Education’s “stealth cut” to pupil premium funding. 

It took a decision to calculate the number of children on FSM and attracting pupil premium funding from this April by using a census taken last October, instead of using fresher figures from January 2021 that have been released today.

This means schools will receive no extra funding for children who became newly eligible for the pupil premium between October 2020 and January 2021.

Tes calculated today that this could amount to a funding cut of £124 million.