Private companies are pocketing millions of pounds from children's uneaten free school meals, campaigners reveal today.
Firms which have deals to provide school catering are benefiting from a loophole which allows them to pocket any unspent cash left on pre-loaded cards, according to Citizens UK.
It believes contractors are trousering millions from the arrangement – and called for a crackdown by education chiefs.
The group's activists calculate some £70million a year lies dormant in youngsters' free school meal accounts.
Some of the funds are recouped by cash-strapped schools and town halls, and pumped back into the system.
But where catering has been contracted out, the money helps to swell private firms' coffers, the group claimed.
One year eight pupil said it was “wrong” for companies “to be taking our money without telling us”.
They added: “It’s practically stealing. Imagine all the other things you could afford to buy with all the money that’s being taken away from us.”
Citizens UK researched the loophole about kids effectively losing money by not using their earmarked budget after becoming aware of cases in Tyne and Wear.
It believes eligible kids in primary and secondary schools across the country are losing out on an estimated £70million worth of food.
Nearly 800,000 pupils in England can receive free school meals, each given an average allowance of £2.30 a day - about £440 a year.
But figures from the Children’s Society show one in five youngsters do not take up the benefit for a variety of reasons.
If the cash goes unused, it is lost.
Citizens UK’s Sheila Bamber said: “Substantial sums of money intended for children’s free school meals are going to private providers, caught up in the wider catering contract arrangements.
“Ultimately though, schools and local authorities can change the system as several schools in the North East have already done so.”
Michelle Birtwistle, head of year seven at The Venerable Bede Church of England Academy, Sunderland, said: “This is definitely something we feel strongly about.
“The more you think about it, and the more you dig into it, you realise it is the child’s allocation - and if they don’t use it or they are not in, they end up losing out, and that is not right.”
