LABOUR is demanding that the government sort out its failing free school meal voucher scheme following a litany of administrative errors and delays. 

Families living in poverty have been left waiting for weeks to receive free school meals due to problems with the government website, run by voucher supplier Edenred. 

The website was set up to deliver the £15 per week supermarket vouchers to families entitled to free school meals. 

But school leaders have described wasting countless hours trying to access vouchers for families from the site. 

A head teacher at a primary school told Schools Week that delays and problems with logging orders has been “farcical.” 

Over the Easter weekend schools were unable to access the website at all after it went offline so that it could be upgraded.

Now the government has instructed families not to visit the site unless they have an “immediate requirement” and to only submit orders four days before they are needed. 

The persistent problems have prompted calls for the government to instead support local schemes by reimbursing schools for setting up their own catering or food parcel schemes or handing out alternative food vouchers. 

Today shadow education minister Rebecca Long Bailey said: “It is essential that schools have flexibility to deliver urgent support where needed and will not have to foot the bill for providing these vital services from their existing budgets. 

“The government must issue a clear commitment to fund any local schemes that are providing free school meals to those who need them.”

Ms Long Bailey also called on the government to come clean about the scale of the problem, stressing that “every administrative problem can mean that a child goes hungry.” 

The Department for Education said staff were working “tirelessly” with Edenred to resolve outstanding technical problems.