CHILDREN living in low-income working families are missing out on free school meals because eligibility thresholds have failed to keep pace with inflation over the past two decades, a leading poverty adviser has warned.
Professor Morag Treanor said changing the criteria would be a “simple step” for Chancellor Rishi Sunak to take in his Spring Statement on Wednesday to help families with the cost of living crisis.
Treanor, who is professor of child and family inequalities at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, gave the example of the income threshold set by the UK Government for families who receive child tax credits to access free schools meals - which was £13,200 when it was first introduced in 2002.
She said taking into account inflation, this should be £22,900 today - but it is far lower at £16,105, meaning fewer lower income families are now eligible.
READ MORE: Why food policy should be a core issue in the council elections
Treanor said: “When this was first put in place, it was not meant to keep people out of the system, it was not meant to prevent children from accessing free school meals.
“But because these thresholds are now so low, in order to be earning those incomes, you really are in quite severe levels of poverty and it excludes an awful lot of families who would have been included 20 years ago.
“These families are now excluded and as well as working on relatively low incomes, they are having to fund their children’s school meals, which will be very difficult for families with the cost of living crisis we have in other areas as well.”
She said the Chancellor could increase the threshold back to the equivalent of the level it was 20 years ago, which would be an “easy and uncontroversial” way to help struggling households across the UK.
READ MORE: Free school meals: Story behind one of Holyrood's greatest achievements
But she added local authorities in Scotland could look at changing the eligibility criteria for low income families at a local level.
Currently the free school meals programme in Scotland also includes children in primaries one to five, no matter their family’s financial circumstances.
Treanor said she would also like to see Sunak take other action to help families, such as lifting the benefit cap, removing the “offensive” two-child limit on benefits, and raising benefits higher than the planned 3.1%.
She added: “I can’t imagine how difficult it is going to be with the increase in energy costs, increase in food costs. It is going to make things very difficult for people and I think it is really worrying.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here