Pre-Budget Report: Free school meals for 500,000 children

The move will lift 50,000 children out of relative poverty, the Chancellor Alistair Darling has announced in his Pre-Budget Report.

Free school meals will be extended to primary school pupils in working families with a household income below £16,190.

The extension will start in September 2010 when 50 per cent of eligible children will get free meals.

The government is aiming that all pupils from low-income families will receive free meals by September 2011.

The current pilot of universal free school meals is also to be extended so there is a pilot in each English region.

The government will also move to allow parents to divide a period of paid leave between them in the second six months of their child's life, helping them to better balance work and life.

Meanwhile work will be carried out with local authorities and schools to advise them how to target grants for school uniforms to those that need them.

Action will also be taken to bring together information on a range of benefits in the form of a new public resource by 2010.

As part of its commitment to halve child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020., the government has outlined the five principles that will guide its child poverty strategy.

These include the principles that:

• Work is the best route out of poverty
• Families and family life should be supported
• Early intervention is needed to break cycles of deprivation
• The public sector should work in partnership with other agencies to provide joined-up services for families
• The strategy should be cost-effective and affordable

John Dickie, head of Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, welcomed the proposals but said the government must do more to meet the 2010 target.

He said "The announcement of the extension of free school meals to a further half a million primary children with parents in work lifting another 50,000 children out of poverty is fantastic news and will help hard pressed family budgets stretch further. We are pleased the Chancellor has listened to campaigners' calls on this issue."

But Barnardo's chief executive Martin Narey said the government could not now meet the 2010 target. He said:  "The government has lifted half a million children out of poverty, but we are very disappointed that today's Pre-Budget Report has not gone far enough.

"A pledge was made to halve child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020. It is with a heavy heart that we now know the 2010 goal will not be met. We urge the government to continue in its ambition to end the scourge of child poverty through future budgets and the Child Poverty Bill."