Changes to free school meal eligibility…

Not quite. The transitional arrangements were introduced as part of the UC rollout. As that was delayed several times the transitional arrangements were extended. This date of 1/4/25 has been notified to schools for about a year.

They're not taking it from people with £7k, they're stopping the run on

Yep seems pointless to me as you can see from the user name I'm a money grubbing scrubber and was ready to be outraged but it appears it only applies to new applicants.

Still a shame for anyone who's circumstances changed from earning 6k to 8k etc. Its easy to see many people start working full-time when the kids start school but they probably still won't earn that much but it will easily be over 7k so this will screw them over

Yeah it's daft, my kids get free school meals yet we have a household income of £90k. All because we were both unemployed for a couple of months during COVID.

Is it not 7400 earned after Universal Credit? An income for a single person of 7400 is still likely to qualify for full, if not near to full Universal Credit on top.

We were just discussing this yesterday as colleague who qualified for FSM when her kids were wee, is still getting them now they're 14, 12 and 8 and she now earns £45k. She's told school etc but they've told her they can't do anything as once you qualify, then you qualify. She says herself she really doesn't need it and would rather the finding be redirected.

I think this is one of the good things regarding UC rather than formerly moving from IS to WFTC and CTC.

When this happened to me, moving onto WTC I automatically had to pay for school meals even though I was no better off. £50 a month was a huge chunk out of income. Child had been having school dinners for 3 years previously and enjoyed them... So I carried on.
Second child qualified to the ongoing Pupil Premium and FSM regardless. It was a great help as a single parent.

I never thought I'd see a Labour government taking food of children living in poverty. And £7400pa is absolutely poverty.

The eligibility used to be earning less than 16k a year now it is 7.4k so basically working less than 10 hours a week on minimum wage that barely applies to anyone.

Would make much more sense to raise it to 16k again and do away with free meals for all reception -year 2 what's the point in that anyway

It wasn't forever - just until the end of that education period (so end of primary or high Scotland). Scotland is the same for those who qualify under certain criteria.

Both my children enjoyed free meals in infants and I thought it was a terrible policy. I would much rather have paid for the meals and had the money spent on other areas where the school was in desperate need of funding.

There's quite a lot of misinformation on this post.

Free school meals and pupil premium criteria are slightly different. Free school meals are means tested and as pp said, you can only earn barely anything before you're eligible.

Pupil premium is the children for whom there has been a disadvantage ie were on Free school meals for a time. They are counted in pupil premium numbers so the school has access to extra funding to help them. It doesn't mean they are allowed Free school meals forever but they are allocated some funding for school.

This will have a direct impact on school budgets but not immediately.

The lowered income amount really means that there will be less and less children eligible. It doesn't mean they aren't in poverty though or don't need the help.

The idea from the government is to stop people using benefits to live and that they'll get high enough paying jobs. If it was that simple then you wouldn't have 1000s of people who work and also have universal credits.

On the old benefits as long as you earned less than 16k you were eligible with new benefit universal credit they changed it to 7.4k

So basically more than halved it without anyone noticing really

I may be missing something but what is the problem with that? People's income and circumstances can change a lot between their children starting reception and them being in year 6. Personally I think that school meals should be free for all pupils in state primary school as they are in London, but if they are means tested it should be that the people that need it most at any given time should be the ones getting it, not those who may have formerly been on hard times half a decade ago.

I don’t think it was permanent- just 6 years after

This sucks. The criteria used to be earning less than 16k then they changed it to 7.4k, which is less than 10 hours a week minimum wage so basically applies to barely anyone especially if they check it every year.

Would be better to do away with everyone having free meals in ks1 and then raise it back up to 16k.
Just my opinion

Anyone know how this is going to impact schools funding ie. Pupil premium? Seems very concerning if they are changing that too.

Seems sensible to me.

Universal credit claimants must declare any changes to their income, why shouldn't all benefits be the same? They're not taking them away from people who need them.

£7400 is nothing and it’s probably going to hit single parents. First the pensioners, then the disabled and now the children. The government has been told they are going to push thousands into poverty with their cuts but they don’t seem to care, they’ll get subsidised meals in the Houses of Parliament though. Absolute joke of a government when they take the freebies for themselves whilst axing everything.

I think this is a good move because it also will improve the quality of the data that we have about deprived children. The protection was skewing the statistics so that children that were actually now in family's with a higher level of financial means were included in the figures.