Oldham MP pushes for expansion of free school meals voucher system

Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon

Oldham MP Jim McMahon has been urging the government and the Department for Education specifically to re-write the way the current free school meals voucher system works.

Currently the vouchers provided by Edenred can be spent used at supermarkets like Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose and M&S, which means families that shop at discount supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl, or those who rely on local convenience stores, are at a disadvantage.

Mr McMahon said: “I’ve been concerned that thousands of children could miss out on this scheme because they don’t have a qualifying chain supermarket nearby.”

“Smaller retail shops like, the Co-op or local convenience stores, are a lifeline to so many families across the country and it feels like a monumental mistake to leave them out of this scheme.

"The Co-op exists to do social good, in our country’s hour of need we should be utilising all of the tools at our disposal to help those in need.

"And not including discount stores like Aldi and Lidl, where so many people now do their regular family shop - it beggars’ belief.

“It’s unreasonable to expect families to make multiple trips to multiple different supermarkets in order to do their regular shop and then to redeem the FSM vouchers when government is telling us to leave the house as little as possible.

“I’ve been liaising with the Department for Education about the hole in their scheme since it was announced, and it looks like there may finally be light at the end of the tunnel.

"Last week I was informed that the DfE are close to coming to an arrangement to expand the scheme, so it should not be long before this mistake has been rectified.”

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