It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson. I congratulate the hon. Member for South Shields on securing this debate and commend her tireless work to raise awareness of challenges faced by disadvantaged children. The Government are committed to supporting those on low incomes through measures such as spending over £108 billion annually on working-age benefit support and recently addressing cost-of-living pressures. For free school meals, there are around 1.9 million pupils eligible under current criteria, up from 15% in 2015 due to protections during universal credit roll-out. The Government aim to provide nutritious meals for children who are out of work or on low incomes. We have increased funding and extended eligibility several times over the past half-century, including introducing universal infant free school meals. Last year, more than 600,000 children received healthy food through the holiday activities and food programme. The national schools breakfast programme is supported by £24 million in funding. For those with no recourse to public funds, eligibility has been permanently extended subject to income thresholds. I will continue to review eligibility for free school meals but extend eligibility would carry significant financial costs and could result in around half of pupils becoming eligible, impacting affordability. The Government have provided over £15 billion of support targeted at those with the greatest need and increased core funding for schools by £2.5 billion this year compared to last year.