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Jamie Oliver calls for all kids in universal credit households to get free school meals
Statistics show that under the current rules, around 800,000 children living in poverty are not eligible for free school meals
Jamie Oliver has called on the government to give all children from households on universal credit free school meals.
Currently, only the children of parents who claim universal credit and have an annual income of no more than £7,400 after tax are eligible for free school meals.
According to Bite Back 2030 – an organisation ensuring all children have access to healthy and nutritious food – this means there are around 800,000 children living in poverty without free school meals in the UK.
The celebrity chef has now thrown his support behind the organisation’s mission, with him telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this week: “If you earn over £7,400, you won’t get that free school lunch.
“But I think we’d all agree that there’s a massive gap between the means test for free school lunches as it stands and Universal Credit.
“I think what the Government are saying is Universal Credit tethers off and can go up to sort of £30,000 – £40,000, but really we’re talking about the bulk of them being around £14,000 per household.”
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The chef admitted he has ‘no faith’ that the prime minister would change her views, but added that he was ‘up for the fight’ to improve children’s health.
He also said he believed that investing in free school meals for children would help boost the economy, adding: “The reality is, if you speak to the best minds in economics in the country… in the world, they will tell you that if you output healthier kids, you’re going to have a more productive, more profitable country.
“We know in every way, shape and form that kids who have a decent lunch and breakfast learn better, their educational attainment is better… but no one’s taken it seriously yet.”
In response, Health and Social Care Secretary Therese Coffey also told Today that it was important that support for struggling families was ‘targeted’.
She said if all children from families on universal credit were allowed to have free school meals, ‘taxpayers may be surprised to learn that somebody on £35,000 or £40,000 would all of a sudden be eligible’.
This comes after the Labour party pledged to give all primary school pupils a free breakfast under their childcare plan, regardless of their family’s wealth and financial situation.