FROM time to time stories are put around that cause distress to people on low incomes. One recent story is that 1 million children will lose their free school meals. This is important to many families living in Wyre Forest, who may think they are affected by this and will lose a benefit. So, to reassure those families who are worried, I take the information about this issue from Channel 4’s fact checker, that highlights Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner’s comments that plans “could leave over 1 million children without a hot meal in schools” is “not quite the full story”.

Whilst all children in years 1 and 2 get free meals, from year 3 onwards only those children of people receiving out of work benefits get free school meals, and they lose these once a single parent starts working 16 hours per week (or 24 hours if there are two).

Because the benefits system was such a nonsense, Universal Credit gets rid of things like the 16 hour rule. UC pays like a cross between Jobseekers Allowance and in work benefits, so there would be a larger amount of people eligible for FSMs than under the old system. The government has said that as an interim measure all people on UC will get free school meals, but they will introduce a system that looks at means testing income. The threshold will be £7,400, but once UC and other benefits are considered, that income goes up to as much as £24,000. Because UC brings in far more people under the free school meals system, the government has said that all those currently getting FSMs will continue to get them, but from a date in the future the means testing will come into force. So, if your children get FSMs now, they will continue to do so. If they are years 1 or 2 or younger, you will end up being means tested.

The net effect of all this is that far from 1 million children losing out, the reality is that around 50,000 more children will get free school meals than was the case before the changes were brought in.

There are a lot of things that people must worry about and not all are resolvable. But it is wholly wrong that politicians appear to raise false fears for parents for political gain. We can all be guilty of this, but this is a more egregious example than normal.