Claims thousands of children in poverty across Lincolnshire and Newark don't get free school meals
Child Poverty Action Group's new analysis reveals 70,000 East Midlands children in poverty can’t get free school meals.
There are claims thousands of children across Lincolnshire and Newark living in poverty are not getting free school meals.
The Child Poverty Action Group charity says around 70,000 youngsters across the East Midlands should be getting them but aren't.
They've called the current criteria 'Restrictive' and 'outdated' .
Infants are guaranteed a free school meal in England.
3 in 10 children in the East Midlands are in poverty.
Children in Year 3 and above in households on universal credit only qualify if their family’s income is below £7,400 per year, before benefits and after tax.
The threshold for free school meals has not changed since 2018.
Latest estimates from the charity show that 3 in 10 children in the East Midlands are in poverty.
In their manifesto, Labour said they will provide free breakfast clubs in every primary school in England- to drive up attendance, standards and improve behaviour.
Laura Stratford, who works for the Greater Lincolnshire Food Partnership, said: “We are letting children down in a big way in Lincolnshire.”
It’s a real no-brainer that we improve school food
"Morally it’s the thing we should be doing, but it also pays for itself very very easily saving money for the NHS.
"Universal free school meals are really sensible and are cost effective for schools. It takes school time and energy and impacts morale when they have to chase down who gets school meals and who doesn’t.
We just need to be normalising good food for all children.
"At the moment the criteria for receiving free school meals are very very low and there are plenty of people facing real struggles with food that are not eligible for free school meals.
"Food banks are the emergency support we have for people.
"We are seeing more and more people being referred back to food banks because they haven’t got an end in sight for not being able to make ends meet.
"In particular, we are seeing a rise in households with children being referred to food banks."