Ukrainian pupils taking refuge in the UK should get free school meals | Letter

The government must offer more help to Ukrainians in Britain, as they are currently denied refugee status, writes Susie Cooke I work at a state secondary school with (currently) 34 Ukrainian students and seven Ukrainian staff members – cleaners, a teacher and a psychologist. All are refugees. The government announcement that children of parents benefiting from universal credit are to get free school meals in September 2026 has to be good news (Free school meal expansion in England will benefit fewer than claimed, IFS says, 5 June). But this does nothing to address the worrying situation for the many thousands of Ukrainian students in this country.