Food vouchers / free school meals - going to wrong parent

[burntbagel]

Hi posting on behalf of someone with this issue
Their DC has FSM and they are a UC recipient. Vouchers over the holidays (I never knew this was a thing until now) have always been sent to them. The school has changed this and they’re now being sent to the other parent.
UC parent has child 50/50, other parent not in need of funds. School have refused to engage when asked but have just redirected the payments. They’ve said they send it to the primary carer and not the eligible household and that whoever claims UC is irrelevant. In this instance there is no primary carer and always 50/50 over holidays and the other household is a high earning one.
Has this happened to anyone else? Tried looking at guidance online but can’t quite make sense of it. Thanks
sorry if posted in wrong area

bump if anyone has experience of this

Thanks if any experience of
this

No experience of this, but absolutely disgusted that a parent in a high earning household would leave their children reliant on vouchers for free food. Poor kids

It is the school’s error I think. But yes the child gets FSM despite the high earning of one parent, as the other parent was eligible (separated) Doesn’t sit right with me that some people get lots of things and others get none when the need is greater but that’s a bit off topic.

Also them switching it over is going to
have some impact on the child for the time they are not with the high earning parent

heya,

I'm currently in a similar situation to you - currently at loggerheads with my child's school over my issue - as they have allowed my child's dad access to the FSM code which dad isn't entitled to - he earns 40k+ a year, has a wife who earns 10-20k a year and they also share a child too ... oh and they don't even live under the same council as us either.

School has also seemingly marked my child's dad down as " joint main guardian" which is how he ended up with access to the codes.. I say codes.. coz my child's father has cashed in at least 4 vouchers over last year when each time he wasn't entitled to do so! This whole situation is made worse given that me, my child's Dad and said child are all part of a court order which states child lives with me and visits dad ( this legally makes me the main guardian for our child .. no joint about it) within said court order it also states that any communication between Dad and I is to be done via email ( phone call in an emergency) - the school are aware of the court order - they have a copy of it - they are also aware of every stipulation within said court order as it affects our child and technically affects how information is passed between school - dad-mum.

I'm beyond fuming with my situation as the school has let me down massively as they have a copy of the court order, and they should have never put my child's dad down as " joint main guardian" without looking into it first due to the court order we have. Not to mention this is now the 2nd confirmed voucher Dad has "stolen" from me - the school don't seem too arsed about what they've done either - they're blaming Dad .. Dad will presumably blame the school and I know for a fact Dad will find this hilarious that he's taken £75 worth of vouchers from me/ from his son and have made things more difficult for me as a result of it.