Labour MP calls for eligible children to automatically receive free school meals

All eligible children should be automatically enrolled for free school meals, a Labour MP has said, as he described the decision not to lift the two-child benefit cap as “extremely painful”.

Peter Lamb, MP for Crawley, told the Commons everything possible should be done to prevent the vilification of those receiving benefits.

Currently, households with a combined annual net income of £7,400 or less, excluding benefits, are invited to sign their children up for free school meals.

Mr Lamb’s Free School Meals (Automatic Registration of Eligible Children) Bill proposes the automatic registration of all children eligible for free school meals, with the option for parents to opt out.

Speaking during the Bill’s second reading, Mr Lamb said: “If this Government is to be judged on anything over the next five years, let it be how it treats the most vulnerable members of our society.

“Like many members of my party, I have found the decision not to immediately lift the two-child benefit cap extremely painful.

“We do not need further reports on how this has been one of the most significant drivers of child poverty under the last government, and at this point I do not believe the book shelves at the House of Commons library could support any more evidence were it to be submitted.

“However, I do accept that £3.2 billion cannot simply be found overnight.”

The two-child benefit cap restricts the amount of universal credit a family can claim, making it more difficult to receive payments for third and subsequent children.

Mr Lamb continued: “If we are serious about ending childhood poverty, we need to consider all of the issues in the round and the child poverty taskforce is a vital part of ensuring that limited public money is used most effectively to address this crisis.

“But what can we do here today, while we await the findings of that taskforce, to try and improve the conditions of those children living in poverty?

“Members will be aware that private members’ bills cannot authorise a new expenditure, and I do not seek to challenge that.

“This Bill simply seeks to ensure that those children, which this House has already stated should receive free meals at school, actually receive them automatically, unless parents actively opt out of the system.

“Not a penny more expenditure than necessary to fulfil the social contract which generations of this Parliament has sustained with our poorest children.

“And these are our poorest children – to qualify for free school meals requires a combined household income of £7,400 or less, an income of roughly half the average rents in my constituency.

“I find it hard to believe that it is possible to sustain a household on such low income, and it is these children that this Bill is looking to support.”

“People are, by and large, choosing not to access support available, sometimes because of stigma, sometimes because of a lack of awareness about it, but the impact upon that within our society is real.

“And we really should be doing everything we can to reduce the stigma around all this.

“We all pay in, so there is this safety net for us when we need it, and to be sure that the other members of our community, our neighbours, the people who we care about, don’t have to go without, when they fall upon difficult times.

“And we should throw everything possible to try and avoid the vilification, which is disgustingly very often put upon people simply because they are poor.”

Sharon Hodgson, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for school food, emphasised the Bill did not need new expenditure.

The Labour MP for Washington and Gateshead South told the Commons: “Government funding already exists for the children who aren’t claiming this statutory support, so it is the lowest of low hanging fruit.”

Education minister Stephen Morgan urged Mr Lamb to withdraw his Bill.

He said the Government spends £1.5 billion annually on benefits-based free lunches for 2.1 million children, adding that ministers are “supportive of the aims of this Bill, through the work with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to explore legal gateways that could enable better data sharing, and further consideration of improving free school meal enrolment through the work of the child poverty taskforce”.

Mr Morgan said: “At their core, we consider the aim of these measures is to ensure those who need it get the support that they are entitled to, which of course is a goal that we are supportive of.

“Free lunch programmes provide pupils with a central nutrition, support attendance, and ultimately ensure that pupils can concentrate, learn and get the most out of their education.”