With inflation squeezing school budgets and household incomes alike, the debate over free school meals (FSM) has intensified. Currently, in England, all children in Reception, Year 1, and Year 2 receive free school meals under the Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) policy, regardless of household income. Critics argue that this universal entitlement subsidises wealthy families who can easily afford to pay, draining hundreds of millions of pounds from core school budgets. They advocate for a strict means-testing system, directing funds only to the poorest households, or aligning eligibility with Universal Credit thresholds. However, health and education advocates warn that means-testing creates a 'poverty trap' and stigma, deterring vulnerable families from applying, which could worsen childhood nutrition, health, and classroom performance, ultimately raising long-term NHS and educational remedial costs.
Extract C states: ‘Perhaps the time has come to scrap universal infant free school meals, or to expand them to all primary school pupils regardless of background?’
Use the extract and your knowledge of economics to evaluate whether the government should provide free school meals for all, some, or no primary school children.
378 exam-style questions on AQA A Level Economics 1.8 The market mechanism, market failure and government intervention in markets, covering 1.8.1 How markets and prices allocate resources, 1.8.2 The meaning of market failure, 1.8.3 Public goods, private goods and quasi-public goods, 1.8.4 Positive and negative externalities in consumption and production, 1.8.5 Merit and demerit goods, 1.8.6 Market imperfections, 1.8.7 Competition policy (A-level only), 1.8.8 Public ownership, privatisation, regulation and deregulation of markets (A-level only), 1.8.9 Government intervention in markets, and 1.8.10 Government failure. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.