Children in receipt of Free School Meals

Free School Meals are for children whose parents receive certain benefits (or who are receiving those benefits themselves). The number of pupils eligible for Free School Meals has continued to increase. In January 2024, 2.1 million pupils were eligible for Free School Meals, 24.6% of all pupils.

Findings from the United Against Bullying Programme:

Our research, carried out over several years as part of the United Against Bullying Programme (2021–2024), consistently shows that children receiving Free School Meals are more likely to experience bullying than their peers. This insight comes from our Pupil Bullying and Wellbeing Questionnaire, which has been central to our data collection. Despite these findings, little is currently known about the underlying reasons for this disparity. 

You can find the latest findings from our 'Bullying, school experience and wellbeing: a picture of pupil experience in England 2024' report below.

Experiencing bullying ever (victimised) 

The findings are shown in the Figures below. In Figure 1 these figures are high for all groups. However, pupils who receive Free School Meals (FSM) and those with SEND report slightly higher levels of ever being victimised.

Pupils in receipt of FSM report higher levels of frequency of cyber victimisation than pupils who are not in receipt of FSM.

Frequently being bullied (victimised) 

The findings are shown in the Figures below. Those pupils in receipt of FSM reported higher levels than those not in receipt of FSM. 

Pupils in receipt of FSM report higher levels of frequency of cyber victimisation than pupils who are not in receipt of FSM 

School Experience 

The findings are shown in the Figure below. Pupils in receipt of FSM report a worse school experience than pupils who are not in receipt of FSM.

School Wellbeing 

The findings are shown in the Figure below. Pupils in receipt of FSM report lower wellbeing than pupils who are not in receipt of FSM.  

Report on the 8th Annual Child and Family Poverty Survey 2024:

You can read our blog summarising the findings of this survey here.

The Report on the 8th Annual Child and Family Poverty Survey 2024, written by Children in Wales in October 2024, includes several references to poverty related bullying in Wales. Questions about poverty related bullying were first included by Children in Wales in their 2022 Annual Child and Family Poverty Survey. Two years on, the report has found that the narrative from children and young people has not changed – with poverty related bullying being raised as prevalent. 

As in previous years, school uniform was also identified as being the most difficult cost to manage. As shown in the children and young people’s responses in this report, the impact of incorrect uniform usually resulted in bullying from their peers and various forms of punishment from the school, including detention and/or isolation.

Other general findings on poverty and bullying:

• A 2024 study of 16 countries found that social poverty was connected to increased bullying vicitmisation. Among the 16 countries, the prevalence of bullying victimisation ranged from 12.9%  to 47.5%. The study revealed statistically significant associations between the indicators measuring absolute poverty level and bullying victimisation. In terms of different forms of bullying victimisation, verbal bullying victimisation showed the strongest association with social poverty, followed by physical and relational bullying victimisation. 
• According to a report released by National Children's Bureau and the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, children who have experienced poverty, particularly persistent poverty, are four times more likely to fight with or bully other children (16% of those in persistent poverty, compared to 4% of those who had never been poor). They are also more than twice as likely to report being bullied frequently themselves (12% compared to 5% of the never poor).
• Research by In Kind Direct found that among households with children, 1 in 4 are living in hygiene poverty. Going without essentials from a young age can increase feelings of anxiety and the chance of being bullied, leading to withdrawal. 4 in 10 children are bullied at school as they do not have clean clothes.
• According to a National Education Union survey in 2019 of more than 8,600 teachers, more than a third (35%) said students had been bullied because of poverty.
• With researchers in 2022 analysing perceived economic inequality within friendship groups among 12,995 children in the UK at age 11, they found that adolescents who see themselves as poorer than their friends were 17% more likely to report being bullied or picked on compared to those who feel financially the same as friends at age 11. While reported levels of victimisation fell across the board by the time young people reached 14 years old, those who considered themselves poorer were still 8% more likely to be victimised than those who felt economically similar to friends. Further, they found that feeling both richer or poorer than peers was related to 3-5% higher rates of actually perpetrating bullying.
  • Further, Blanca Piera Pi-Sunyer, a Cambridge Gates Scholar and Ph.D. candidate in the University’s Department of Psychology, added that “It may be that feeling different in any way at a time when belonging is important increases the risk of interpersonal difficulties such as bullying". 
• Using data from 5,857 children in the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), a study in 2019 found 48.6% of children reported having been bullied. Children living in the lowest income households were at 20% greater risk of being bullied compared to those from the highest.