Tackling the Cost of Living Crisis: Helping more children living in poverty to access free school meals

Tackling the Cost of Living Crisis: Helping more children living in poverty to access free school meals

27 September 2022 by Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz in Food Poverty, Debt and Financial Wellbeing, Refugee & Asylum.

As we approach the autumn and winter of 2022, churches are considering what they can do to respond to the very great need in our communities with the ‘Cost of Living Crisis.’

In our latest blog, Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz, Policy and Public Afffairs Manager at Praxis for migrants and refugees, helps us to understand a recent change to government policy on free school meals, in the hope that our church and school communities can help more families in poverty to access this provision.

As the cost of living rises steeply, those who have no access to a safety net are amongst the most vulnerable in our society. Many of your church and school communities in the Diocese of London will be in contact with these vulnerable individuals and families.

At Praxis, we fear that thousands of children living in deep poverty might be missing out on the free school meals they are entitled to, and we hope you can help to spread this message.

The policy change on free school meals

A Government policy change in April 2022 means that children living in poverty whose families are otherwise cut off from the welfare safety net because of their immigration status are now, in theory, eligible for free school meals.

An estimated 2 million people in the UK don’t have access to the welfare safety net because of conditions placed on their immigration status (known as the No Recourse to Public Funds policy, or NRPF). Until recently, this included preventing children from accessing free school meals even if their families were facing poverty or crisis.

In April 2022, after years of campaigning by charities, including Praxis, the Department for Education made free school meals permanently available to families affected by this policy who meet the eligibility criteria. Critically, this includes children whose families may have irregular immigration status (referred to by some as “undocumented.”)

This was a very welcome decision that should allow thousands of children living in poverty to access one nutritious meal a day. This change also allows schools to get further funding through the pupil premium to support the most disadvantaged children.

Many children still missing out on free school meals

But problems with the way this change is being implemented mean that in practice many children are still missing out, even as rising costs pile pressure on families.

Five months after the announcement, schools and parents appear largely unaware of this change, and data on uptake is scarce. The Department’s main information page on Free School Meals makes no mention of children affected by NRPF, meaning that a casual reader might assume that these children are still excluded.

Without clear communication on the policy change, as children return to school they might be missing out on free school meals - just as their families are shouldering the cost-of-living crisis.

So, what can we do?

Firstly, you can help to spread the message about this policy change so that more vulnerable families are not missing out on the free school meals they could access.

You could also share this information with any teachers, headteachers or governors within your church and school communities so that they are aware of this policy change.

There is a helpful briefing paper HERE which helps explain the policy change and eligibility.

What else can we do?

Another barrier to families accessing free school meals for their children, is that they have to declare their immigration status – even if they currently lack status. As the Department for Education has not unequivocally ruled out passing on this information to the Home Office – and as some Local Authorities have embedded Home Office officials – many parents will decide that applying for free school meals is simply too risky. This means that children will continue to go hungry.

You could write to your MP to call on the Department for Education to remove the obstacles families are facing in accessing free school meals for their children, so they can escape hunger, by:

  • Publicly committing to a data-sharing firewall with the Home Office
  • Investing in an information campaign so that schools, local authorities and families know how to access free school meals

Thank you for helping us share this message so that together we can help more children living in deep poverty to access the free school meals that they are entitled to.

We hope you find this series of blogs related to tackling the Cost of Living Crisis helpful. If you, or anyone you know, is doing something innovative to support people in your community through this time, please let us know - we would love to share it!

You may also find some of our other resources on this topic useful - please click HERE to access reports, articles, our Money Help Toolkit, links to charities working in this area, and more.

Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz

Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz

Josephine is Policy and Public Afffairs Manager at Praxis. She leads Praxis’ policy influencing and advocacy, working for a more humane and compassionate immigration system in the UK.

View all posts by Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz

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