Free School Meals
You can claim free school meals for a child who lives with you and who you are responsible for.
Your claim will be automatically processed if you receive Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support and get any of the qualifying benefits.
Your child is eligible for Free School Meals if you get one or more of the following benefits:
- Universal Credit (provided you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400, as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods)
- Income Support
- Income based Jobseekers Allowance
- Income related Employment Support Allowance
- Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit as long as you have a yearly household income of less than £16,190 (as assessed by HM Revenue and Customs) and do not get Working Tax Credit
- Working Tax Credit run- on (paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit)
In addition, the following pupils will be protected against losing their free school meals as follows;
- From 1 April 2018, all existing free school meals claimants will continue to receive free school meals whilst Universal Credit is rolled out. This will apply even if their earnings rise above the new threshold during that time
- In addition, any child gaining eligibility for free school meals after 1 April 2018 will be protected against losing free school meals during the Universal Credit rollout period
- Once Universal Credit is fully rolled out, any existing claimants that no longer meet the eligibility criteria at that point (because they are earning above the threshold or are no longer in receipt of Universal Credit) will continue to receive free school meals until the end of their current phase of education (i.e. primary or secondary)
Please click on the following link if you would like to apply for free school meals online: Free School Meals Application
