This briefing paper outlines concerns about the adequacy of current Free School Meals (FSM) eligibility criteria as an effective method for targeting the provision of FSM and uniform grants at children in poverty, as well as the key way of targeting additional resources and policy responses to addressing educational disadvantage. 
It draws on the findings of a report commissioned by NICCY from Dr Nicole Gleghorne of QUB which provided analysis of Family Resource Survey data from 2017/8, 2018/9 and 2019/20, to determine how closely the current FSM eligibility criteria identifies children in poverty.
This finds that the current eligibility criteria are extremely inaccurate, with only 59% of children in poverty eligible for FSM and, conversely, only a third of children eligible for FSM (34%) experiencing poverty.
The paper found that simply raising the income threshold would not address this disparity, due to the requirement for families to be in receipt of benefits, given a significant proportion of working families on low incomes are not in receipt of any benefits.
Both papers can be downloaded at the right-hand side of this page.
