Education written question – answered at on 15 April 2013.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to ensure that children living in poverty are able to receive free school meals.
The Government recognises the benefits of healthy school meals and is committed to continuing to provide free school meals to those pupils who need them most. Our priority is to make sure that the most disadvantaged children are able to get a nutritious meal.
We are working to encourage all families who meet the criteria to register for free school meals. We want disadvantaged children to benefit from a nutritious meal, and their schools to be able to receive pupil premium funding to help raise disadvantaged pupils' attainment.
Free school meals are not compulsory and there are many reasons why a family may choose not to claim a free school meal to which they are entitled. The fear of being stigmatised can prevent many children from taking a free school meal. We have however made progress in addressing this: for example, many schools now have cashless systems and other methods to ensure that it is not obvious which pupils are receiving a free school meal. The Department for Education's eligibility checking system, used by local authorities, has also made it much easier and quicker to check anonymously which families are entitled to free school meals. National free school meal take-up increased by 60,000 between 2010 and 2012.
The move to universal credit means that we need to introduce new criteria, but these will not reduce the number of children eligible for free school meals.
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