Almost 300,000 pupils in London will receive the mayor’s free meals

Up to 287,000 primary school pupils in London are expected to benefit from Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s upcoming free school meals scheme.

The £135 million program will operate on a universal basis and will run throughout the 2023/24 academic year.

The new figures show how many children in each borough will benefit, with the highest numbers in Barnet, where 13,495 pupils will receive the meals, followed by Bromley (13,321) and Redbridge (13,028).

The borough with the fewest expected beneficiaries is Kensington and Chelsea, with just 2,539 children expected to receive lunches.

Although not technically a borough, the program is also extended to school children in the City of London, otherwise known as the Square Mile. A total of 113 students will be entitled to meals there.

The council says families will save “more than £440 per child” thanks to the policy.

The Government already provides free school meals on a universal basis for children up to and including Year 2.

After that time, the Government only provides lunch to children in households receiving certain benefits. For households on Universal Credit, they must earn less than £7,400 a year – after tax and without benefits and regardless of the number of children in the family – for their children to be eligible for meals.

Lunches administered through the mayor’s scheme will provide for children from Years 3-6.

Five London boroughs – Islington, Newham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Westminster – all currently offer free universal meals for all primary school children.

The city said the funds are still being allocated to the five boroughs as if they were not currently providing the meals – with the intention being that they can use the funds to support other means of helping families with the cost of living crisis.

Mr Khan said: “I know first-hand what free school meals can be, which is why I am determined to do everything I can to help London families facing this growing cost of living crisis.

“I’m proud that hundreds of thousands of children will benefit from unprecedented funding when they return to school after the summer holidays, and that parents in every neighborhood will know their children are getting a good meal for lunch.

“By making sure children don’t go hungry in the classroom and helping their families, we can build a better and more prosperous city for all Londoners.”

The town hall said when the policy was announced: “This is one-off funding from additional business rates income. Sadiq is clear that he can only offer help that should come from the Government for a year.”

But Susan Hall, the Labor mayor’s Tory rival in next year’s mayoral election, said she would keep the policy in place until the 2024/25 school year “at a minimum” if elected.

While she called the policy “imperfect” — saying it could have been better targeted at “those most in need” — she pledged to keep the program on a universal basis “as long as the cost-of-living situation calls for it.” “.

The number of children expected to benefit in each neighborhood is as follows:

Barking and Dagenham – 9,749

Barnet – 13,495

Bexley – 10,377

Brent – 11,502

Bromley – 13,321

Camden – 3,606

City of London – 113

Croydon – 12,723

Ealing – 12,581

Enfield – 12,202

Greenwich – 9,947

Hackney – 6,140

Hammersmith and Fulham – 3,677

Haringey – 8,528

Harrow – 9,976

Havering – 10,653

Hillingdon – 12,435

Hounslow – 10,056

Islington – 4,246

Kensington and Chelsea – 2,539

Kingston upon Thames – 6,655

Lambeth – 7,047

Lewisham – 9,495

Merton – 6,680

Newham – 12,611

Redbridge – 13,028

Richmond upon Thames – 8,124

Southwark – 8,008

Sutton – 8,826

Hamlets Tower – 8,294

Waltham Forest – 9,818

Wandsworth – 7,361

Westminster – 3,064