Thousands of schoolchildren who are living in poverty and missing out on free school meals come from working families, The North East Child Poverty Commission has said.
The Labour Party is currently pushing for all primary school children in England to receive free school meals, but Northumberland MP Ian Levy said he won't be supporting the move.
The Tory MP, who represents Blyth Valley, said hardworking families shouldn't pay for the meals for children of high income families.
Across the North East, 35,800 school-aged pupils are missing out on any form of free school meal, with 4,700 Northumberland school children missing out.
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The North East Child Poverty Commission said many children living in poverty and missing out on free school meals come from working families.
The commission wants to see free school meals introduced for all primary pupils and says many children are not eligible at the moment because the threshold is so low.
Anna Turley, chairwoman of the North East Child Poverty Commission said: "Anyone working in schools across the North East will tell you that our free school meals system is wholly inadequate, with growing numbers of children coming into school hungry and struggling to learn – but not eligible for this support because the threshold is just so low.
"It cannot be right that 40,000 pupils across our region – most from working families – are living below the poverty line but not entitled to free school meals under the current system. Nor is it right for schools to be placed in an increasingly impossible position by a policy that clearly isn’t fit for purpose."
Families on Universal Credit are currently eligible for free school meals if their family income is below £7,400 before benefits are taken into account.
One in four North East school children who live below the UK poverty line cannot access a free school meal each day because of the harshness of the current eligibility criteria.
The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), Children North East(CNE) and the North East Child Poverty Commission (NECPC), believe all children should receive a balanced school meal each day as a basic entitlement.
The group wants to see the Government restore the previous free school meals eligibility threshold which included all families in receipt of Universal Credit, and extended to all those on equivalent benefits.
Ms Turley said: "As a bare minimum, the Government must urgently extend free school meals to all families in receipt of Universal Credit, as the simplest and most effective way of ensuring that all children affected by poverty and food insecurity have the guarantee of that hot, healthy meal when they are at school.
"In the longer term, we should be moving towards universal free school meals for all primary pupils given all the proven health and social benefits of this. That is what is being rolled out in both Scotland and Wales, with children in England being left well behind."
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