Tory universal credit plans could spell disaster for free school meals

Poverty is not an inevitability of our society. It comes about because of poor action by Government and the lack of political will and innovative thought directed at tackling this persistent issue in our society head on.

Under the Tories, we have seen poverty, especially child poverty, become a staple in our society with the IFS forecasting in November that 37% of children will be in relative poverty in 2022 wiping out any progress made over the last couple of decades.

One reason for this shocking rise has been the introduction of Universal Credit. It is well-documented that this reform is causing serious hardship for families and their children with the Tories failing to recognise concerns raised and address them.

A serious concern that is being raised at the moment is the cliff edge the Government plans to introduce when it comes to free school meal eligibility under Universal Credit – where they are currently consulting on introducing a £7,400 earnings threshold for eligibility for free school meals, despite all children in families in receipt of Universal Credit receiving a free school meal during the transition period.

The Government claims under their proposals that around 50,000 more pupils will be eligible for free school meals, yet recent analysis by The Children’s Society warns that around 1 million children in poverty will miss out on free school meals. This is similar to the current number of children living in poverty who do not receive a free school meal, and this is before the full roll-out of Universal Credit has taken place.

It is shameful that children living in poverty are missing out on a healthy school meal, which we know would benefit their education and health which in turn will break the poverty cycle that generations of families find themselves in.

The damaging cliff edge being proposed by the Tories will not help alleviate poverty in society but will only exacerbate and cement it deeper into our society. A rethink is needed.

The only way to force that rethink is to make sure the Government hear the views of people concerned about this matter by submitting their thoughts to the Department for Education’s current consultation, which can be found here.

Labour have made clear that we will oppose these changes and are proving yet again our commitment to alleviating child poverty and giving children the best chance of a life full of achievement and opportunity, where they are not held back by their background or circumstances.

We must bang the drum loudly on the importance of improving the lives of children and continue the achievements of the last Labour Government to lift millions of children out of poverty. Allowing child poverty rates to stagnate, or worse, rise, is a blot on our society and it is up to Labour to hold the Tories to account every step of the way.