Education (Scotland) Act 1980 (Modification) Regulations 2024: equality impact assessment

Equality Impact Assessment - Results

Title of Policy: The Education (Scotland) Act 1980 (Modification) Regulations 2024

Brief summary of aims and desired outcomes of Policy: The policy aim is to protect the eligibility to free school meal provision as a passported benefit for those pupils whose parents are in receipt of both Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit or Universal Credit.

Directorate: Division: Team: Directorate for Learning: Improvement, Attainment and Wellbeing Division: Support and Wellbeing Unit

Executive summary

The Education (Scotland) Act 1980 (Modification) Regulations 2024 will increase the maximum income levels at which families will be eligible to receive free school meals with effect from 1 April 2024. The Regulations will apply where families are eligible to receive free school meals through being in receipt of either both Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit or Universal Credit. This measure became necessary following the rate of the National Living Wage increasing from £10.42 per hour to £11.44 per hour on 1 April 2024.

This change has become necessary since some families who had previously been eligible for free school meals, under the eligibility criteria introduced on 1 April 2023, might have been at risk of losing their entitlement since the latest increase in the National Living Wage would have taken their income above those existing maximum income levels. This protection for families was essential to ensure those who were previously eligible for free school meals through being in receipt of either both Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit or Universal Credit did not lose out on support.

Background

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting families during the financial crisis and has taken a number of policy decisions to protect families including expanding our free school programme and increasing the clothing grant.

To ensure families continued to receive free school meals from 1 April 2024, The Education (Scotland) Act 1980 (Modification) Regulations 2024 came in to force and increased the maximum income levels at which families are eligible to receive free school meals for their children.

These Regulations apply for families who are in receipt of both Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit or Universal Credit. For families in receipt of both Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit, the maximum income levels for free school meals eligibility has been raised from £8,717 to £9,552 per year. For families in receipt of Universal Credit the maximum monthly earned income level has been increased from £726 to £796.

These Regulations will therefore continue to protect families who currently receive free school meals through being in receipt of either of those qualifying benefits following the latest increase to the National Living Wage.

To ensure families are protected, the process of laying Regulations to amend the free school meals eligibility criteria for families in receipt of either both Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit, or Universal Credit, has taken place each year since 2019 to account for annual increases to the National Living Wage.

These Regulations do not affect the free school meals eligibility criteria for families who are in receipt of any other qualifying benefits. Further information about the eligibility criteria for free school meals is available through the following web link: Free school meals - mygov.scot