PUPILS from poorer backgrounds could be deprived of free school dinners due to a ‘burdensome’ process to prove their entitlement.

That is the warning from Oxfordshire Schools Forum to the Department for Education, calling for it to simply tell schools when a child is eligible for free school meal.

Youngsters in Reception through to Year 2 are automatically entitled to free school meals, and older children are also eligible if their parents are on certain state benefits.

But these parents must register to gain the funding, and schools say they are persistently having to chase some families to do so.

From April the DfE will update the free school meals system and will send schools new guidance, but parents will still have to apply.

During consultation on the changes, Oxfordshire Schools Forum wrote to the DfE stating: “This is a wholly inadequate response to the long-standing and overly bureaucratic and burdensome issue for schools trying to identify all eligible pupils, whilst also trying to develop good relationships with vulnerable parents”.

As well as the risk of children going hungry, it means schools are losing pupil premium cash.

This is extra funding given to schools for children claiming free school meals, worth £1,320 per pupil, to help further their education.

Parents in Oxfordshire have to fill in a form and return it to their child’s school with proof of benefits, so staff can check eligibility, but many have not bothered.

Education expert and county councillor John Howson said chasing parents to register can become a ‘chore’ for schools.

He said: “Ever since free school meals for infants was introduced there has been an issue of persuading parents of pupils to register.

“Schools would like the Government to tell them who is eligible, not to try and have to force parents to register.”

In the 2016-17 academic year, almost 10 per cent of Oxfordshire’s state primary pupils were eligible for free school meals, and eight per cent at secondary.

Cash-strapped schools are already struggling under budget pressures, as reported on the Oxford Mail’s front page on Monday.

Prof Howson added: “It is important for school funding to register as many pupils as possible.

“As unemployment falls, so numbers of new pupils eligible for free school meals under any system in most of Oxfordshire will have fallen, cutting income to schools.”

In 2015, both Rose Hill Primary School and Cutteslowe Primary School in Oxford said they missed out on thousands in funding, because some parents had not signed their child up for free school meals.

Confusion about eligibility could ensue this year, as the Government changes its eligibility criteria.

This month, following consultation, it confirmed the system will change with the rollout of the Universal Credits benefit system.

From April, children in Universal Credit-claiming families with net earnings less than £7,400 will be entitled to free school meals.

The government said this will mean 50,000 more pupils will be eligible, but critics say one million children in poverty will miss out.

Oxfordshire Schools Forum added in its letter: “It is absolutely essential that new money is provided to fully fund all of the additional children that will be entitled to free school meals.”

The letter, sent in January, was published this month as part minutes of the forum’s last meeting.

A DfE spokeswoman said the process was ‘as simple as possible’.

She added: “Schools and local authorities have worked hard to encourage eligible families to claim free school meals, and we provide guidance and a model registration form to support them.”