DfE expands FSM to all children of Universal Credit households

Over half a million more children will reportedly benefit from a free meal every school day, after the government announced it is expanding the eligibility to include all children from universal credit households.

From the start of the 2026 school year, every pupil whose household is on Universal Credit will have a new entitlement to free school meals.

Since 2018, children have only been eligible for free school meals if their household income is less than £7,400 per year, meaning hundreds of thousands of children living in poverty have been unable to access free school meals.

The government’s new expansion to those on Universal Credit comes ahead of the Child Poverty Taskforce publishing its 10-year strategy to drive sustainable change later this year.

Prime minister Keir Starmer said: “Working parents across the country are working tirelessly to provide for their families but are being held back by cost-of-living pressures.My government is taking action to ease those pressures. Feeding more children every day, for free, is one of the biggest interventions we can make to put more money in parents’ pockets, tackle the stain of poverty, and set children up to learn.

“This expansion is a truly historic moment for our country, helping families who need it most and delivering our Plan for Change to give every child, no matter their background, the same chance to succeed.”

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson added: “It is the moral mission of this government to tackle the stain of child poverty, and today this government takes a giant step towards ending it with targeted support that puts money back in parents’ pockets.

“From free school meals to free breakfast clubs, breaking the cycle of child poverty is at the heart of our Plan for Change to cut the unfair link between background and success. We believe that background shouldn’t mean destiny. Today’s historic step will help us to deliver excellence everywhere, for every child and give more young people the chance to get on in life.”

In 2018, transitional protections were introduced to make sure that students who became eligible for free school meals (FSM) wouldn’t lose that support during the rollout of Universal Credit.

The Department for Education has now confirmed that these protections will remain in place until September 2026. After that, a new eligibility rule tied to Universal Credit will take effect.

Commenting on the news, Dr Tammy Campbell, director for Early Years, Inequalities and Wellbeing at the Education Policy Institute said:“We have previously called for the expansion of free school meal eligibility to those with higher incomes so this move is welcome. The key issue will be how many additional children this will support. To the best of our knowledge, the Department for Education has not fully assessed the number of children who will cease to be eligible for FSM as a result of the conclusion of transitional protections.

“It is possible that the extension of eligibility will largely serve to balance out the cessation of transitional protections, rather than making significant numbers of children newly eligible. It will be important to monitor the data to track how this plays out, and to continue to consider other changes to welfare benefit entitlements that could lift children out of poverty, including the abolition of the ‘two child limit.”

She added: “Implementation and access are also important. Our research shows that many families currently entitled to FSM are not registered for their entitlement. This is particularly a problem in the early years and at the beginning of primary school. Alongside many others, including the Education Select Committee, we have called for centralised autoenrollment to help with these barriers to access and with under-registration.

“There does not appear to be a clear rationale from government as to why the new free school meal eligibility criteria will not be reflected in pupil premium eligibility. The government is clear that these children are growing up in difficult circumstances. As such they are more likely to have lower attainment and benefit from additional support in school.”