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<p>The Department for Education (DfE) provides an Electronic Eligibility Checking
Service (ECS) to all local authorities in England, which is used to confirm eligibility
for free school meals.</p><p> </p><p>To support this, there are already data sharing
agreements in place between DfE and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and
other government departments who administer benefits which qualify families for free
school meals. This enables local authorities and schools to quickly verify eligibility
for free school meals, including where parent(s) have been awarded Universal Credit
and have earnings below the prescribed threshold for free school meal eligibility.</p><p>
</p><p>DWP therefore has no plans to ask claimants to give permission for their Universal
Credit data to be used to provide an automatic entitlement to other benefits.</p>
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