A bill to automatically direct Government cash to Britain’s poorest children has won cross-party backing from more than 100 MPs.
Labour MP Frank Field’s Free School Meals (Automatic Registration of Eligible Children) Bill, which will be heard in the Commons today, would put a statutory duty on all councils to identify and register all those youngsters eligible for help.
The legislation would require Education Secretary Nicky Morgan to act to help the 160,000 poor children in England currently not registered for a free daily hot meal.
The 10 Minute Rule Bill - which has Tory, Labour, SNP, DUP, SDLP and Green support - aims to correct the anomaly whereby families have to apply for free school meals rather than be automatically granted them on the grounds of their family income.
With schools’ Pupil Premium top-up cash directly linked to the number of children on free school meals on their books, many have lost out as numbers dropped with the introduction of ‘universal’ free meals under the last Government.
Mr Field’s bill aims to spread nationwide the practice of some local councils who automatically register those families in receipt of housing benefit and therefore struggling with finances.
It stems from the findings of a cross-party group of MPs and Peers, published last week, which offered a route map to ending hunger in the United Kingdom, ‘Feeding Britain in 2015-16’.
The group found that a small but growing number of local authorities are using their Housing Benefit records to identify families whose children are eligible, but not registered to receive free school meals.
Once identified, each family is informed by the local authority that their child has automatically been signed up to receive free school meals, with no need to fill in any forms unless they wish to opt out of entitlement.
Automatically registering those families eligible for free school meals cuts bureaucracy as well as the stigma of having to apply for the extra benefit.
Liverpool City Council, Bolton Council and Wirral Council all implement such a scheme to ensure their schools don’t lose out on Pupil Premium cash that is targeted a poor schools and can provide tens of thousands of extra funding.
The Department for Education’s most recent estimate suggested that 160,000 poor children in England were entitled, but not registered to receive free school meals.
Mr Field said: “A large number of children will have gone to school hungry this morning. Many of them will have struggled to concentrate in lesson after lesson on an empty stomach. Were the bill to be enacted, far fewer of them would be hungry at school each day in the New Year.
“And it would free up extra money for schools to ensure additional food for the poorest children at breakfast and before they return home after school.’
“The policy of automatic registration for free school meals has delivered a win-win situation in those areas of the country that have been bold enough to embrace it. And yet a large number of local authorities – we don’t know how many – won’t take up the policy without a nudge from Whitehall.
HuffPost UK has featured one scheme in Mr Field’s constituency which aims to help children avoid hunger during school holidays, by offering them a free meal as part of a playgroup scheme.
The list of MPs of all parties backing today’s bill includes:
Conservatives
1. Andrew Bridgen
2. Andrew Rosindell
3. Anne-Marie Trevelyan
4. Bob Blackman
5. Christopher Chope
6. David Amess
7. David Burrowes
8. David Davis
9. Edward Leigh
10. Fiona Bruce
11. Flick Drummond
12. Gary Streeter
13. Graham Stuart
14. Glyn Davies
15. Heidi Allen
16. Henry Bellingham
17. Jeremy Lefroy
18. John Glen
19. Jonathan Djanogly
20. Kevin Foster
21. Martin Vickers
22. Nicholas Soames
23. Peter Bottomley
24. Philip Hollobone
25. Steve Baker
26. Stewart Jackson
27. Tim Loughton
Labour
28. Adrian Bailey
29. Alan Johnson
30. Alan Meale
31. Alex Cunningham
32. Alison McGovern
33. Andrew Gwynne
34. Andrew Smith
35. Angela Rayner
36. Ann Coffey
37. Barry Sheerman
38. Ben Bradshaw
39. Bill Esterson
40. Caroline Flint
41. Clive Betts
42. Colleen Fletcher
43. Dave Anderson
44. Derek Twigg
45. Diana Johnson
46. Emma Lewell-Buck
47. Emma Reynolds
48. Fiona Mactaggart
49. Gareth Thomas
50. Geoffrey Robinson
51. Gerald Kaufman
52. Gisela Stuart
53. Graham Allen
54. Graham Jones
55. Graham Stringer
56. Helen Hayes
57. Helen Jones
58. Iain Wright
59. Ian Austin
60. Ian Lavery
61. Ian Lucas
62. Ivan Lewis
63. Jess Phillips
64. Jenny Chapman
65. Jim Dowd
66. Jim Fitzpatrick
67. Jo Cox
68. Joan Ryan
69. John Mann
70. John Woodcock
71. Jon Cruddas
72. Jonathan Reynolds
73. Julie Cooper
74. Karen Buck
75. Karin Smyth
76. Kate Hollern
77. Kate Osamor
78. Keir Starmer
79. Keith Vaz
80. Kevin Barron
81. Liz Kendall
82. Liz McInnes
83. Louise Ellman
84. Madeleine Moon
85. Margaret Beckett
86. Margaret Greenwood
87. Marie Rimmer
88. Mary Creagh
89. Meg Hillier
90. Mike Wood
91. Nic Dakin
92. Pat Glass
93. Paul Farrelly
94. Peter Dowd
95. Peter Kyle
96. Robert Blackman-Woods
97. Robert Flello
98. Roger Godsiff
99. Ronnie Campbell
100. Rosie Cooper
101. Ruth Smeeth
102. Shabana Mahmood
103. Sharon Hodgson
104. Siobhain McDonagh
105. Simon Danczuk
106. Stella Creasy
107. Stephen Kinnock
108. Stephen Timms
109. Stephen Twigg
110. Steve McCabe
111. Steve Reed
112. Steve Rotheram
113. Thangam Debbonaire
114. Tulip Siddiq
115. Virendra Sharma
116. Wes Streeting
117. Yasmin Qureshi
118. Yvonne Fovargue
SNP
119. John Nicolson
DUP
120. Gavin Robinson
121. Jeffrey Donaldson
122. Jim Shannon
123. Sammy Wilson
SDLP
124. Mark Durkan
Green
125. Caroline Lucas