More than a quarter of Derbyshire pupils eligible for free school meals – as Government plans to expand access to scheme

It comes as the Government announced plans to expand free school meals to more pupils in England, adding it would make 500,000 additional children eligible.

Charity Feed Britain said the expansion will help a significant number of children to "break free of the hunger trap", but called on the Government to make eligible pupils' registration to the scheme more straightforward.

Department for Education figures show 31,471 (29%) of the 107,992 pupils in Derbyshire were eligible for free school meals in January.

This was up slightly from the previous year, when the proportion stood at 27%, and the highest figure since records began in 2015-16.

Across England, an additional 77,700 children became eligible for free school meals last year, taking their total to more than 2.17 million in January.

It means 25.7% of pupils were eligible then – up from 24.6% a year earlier.

Last week the Government announced plans to expand free school meals to all households in England that claim universal credit from September 2026.

Currently, households on universal credit must earn below £7,400 a year (after tax and not including benefits) to qualify for the scheme.

The Government said the expansion will make 500,000 additional children eligible and save parents nearly £500 every year.

Andrew Forsey OBE, national director of Feeding Britain, said: "The Government's decision to expand eligibility to a broader group of children in poverty, whose parents work for low wages, "will help hundreds of thousands more children break free of the hunger trap.

"Yet all too many children remain trapped, despite being eligible, as they're not registered for their free school meal entitlement.

"As a next step, to help every child break free, the Government needs to introduce a policy of automatically enrolling all eligible children for free school meals.

"This would put our country firmly on track to abolish child hunger."

A DfE spokesperson said: "Through our Plan for Change, this Government has taken a historic step to tackle the stain of child poverty and spread opportunity – extending free school meal eligibility to all children in households on Universal Credit.

"This means over half a million more children will be able to access free meals from the 2026 school year, lifting 100,000 children completely out of poverty – and we will launch an upgraded eligibility checking tool next year to make it simpler than ever for parents to see if they can benefit.