Nearly 2.1 million pupils in England now eligible for free school meals

Nearly 2.1 million pupils in England are now eligible for free school meals, figures show.

An additional 75,000 children became eligible for free school meals over a year, according to data published by the Department for Education (DfE).

Nearly one in four (24.6%) of pupils in England were eligible for free school meals in January this year, up from 23.8% in January 2023, the data shows.

This amounts to 2.09 million children, up from 2.02 million in January 2023.

There are sharp differences in eligibility for free school meals (FSMs) across regions of England.

The highest rate is for north-east England, where 31.2% of all state school pupils were eligible, while the lowest is south-east England at 19.7%.

Children in state schools in England can receive free meals if a parent or carer is receiving one of a number of benefits, including Universal Credit, child tax credits or income support.

All pupils who have become eligible for free school meals since April 1 2018 will remain eligible until March 2025 as part of protections introduced during the rollout of Universal Credit, which the DfE has said is a factor that is likely to have contributed to the ongoing increase.

The DfE data published on Thursday also shows that the number of pupils in state-funded special schools in England, for pupils with special educational needs, has increased by 5% in a year to nearly 157,000.

Meanwhile, 20.8% pupils at state schools in England in January 2024 were recorded as having a first language known or believed to be other than English, up from 20.2% in January 2023.

A pupil is recorded to have English as an additional language if they are exposed to a language at home that is known or believed to be other than English.

“This is not a measure of English language proficiency or a good proxy for recent immigration,” the DfE said.

The latest data also suggests that the number of pupils in independent schools in England has increased in the past year by less than 1% to 593,000.

On the latest FSM figures, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said: “Schools do all they can to alleviate the problems children and young people face through poverty but this should not be happening in the first place.

“These inequalities do not start and end at the school gates.

“An incoming government must address child poverty by immediately scrapping the two-child limit and ensuring every child has a free school meal.”