Free school meals holiday vouchers ending, worried about affording holiday outings

[elliejjtiny]

Free school meals holiday vouchers are going.

I know people are going to say don't have children you can't afford etc etc.

But when our youngest was born dh had a good job, I was a SAHM and we could afford stuff.

We can still afford to feed us and the dc but those vouchers meant we could afford to go out once in the school holidays. Not to alton towers or anything like that but somewhere local like an interactive museum or soft play. These outings mean so much as the dc are getting older and I am conscious that our time with them being able to do stuff like this is running out. Our food shopping bill goes up a lot during the holidays as well.

I wouldn't mind if we could use the HAF scheme as that would give the dc the opportunity to go out and do something fun but we can't because of the dc SEN.

For kids that receive pupil premium, free school meals....yes they do.

Would it help to have suggestions of low/no cost activities? DD3 (16) loves sea glass hunting. We go several times per week and just scour the beach for bits of glass or the odd bit of ceramic.

Maybe becsuse the Op has several children with disabilities?

Well you didnt.

What is your husband doing? The threshold for FSM is £7400 a year income before tax, he may have had a better job before but even NMW would be 3 times that amount. It sounds like you are dealing with the additional needs of your children can he not just get any job?

Whereabouts are you based, OP? There are charities that do days out for families who have children with additional needs.

Your DH must be on a very low income if you get fsm? Could he or you up your hours to bring in more money?

The question is what are you both doing to bring more money into the household? Our welfare state is bloated as it is - you have multiple children and didn’t work which is a luxury for many families. Lots of places do children’s meals for a £1 during the holidays like ASDA - being able to take your “children” on days out which include 1 adult of age 19 and the rest pre teens is an expectation too far when you have limited family finances

Well I did. The advice was to save up and look for free days out

That’s anathema on here!

They're reasonable suggestions I’d of thought

If your children have disabilities look at whether you can get a ‘max card’. I find it’s better in some places but we’ve got lots of local places we can get in free due to DS’s autism. We can even get out whole family into local national trust for free.

You need to get it from a proper distributor. We got ours from our autism group.

Its hard to save up when you hsve no spare cash.

I agree!

I don’t get free school meals but DS is disabled. His Sen youth club runs an activity once a week in hols with free food. Some of the haf activities extend to Sen kids so we do those again often include food. Theres a couple local charities that do activities. We have a carers centre that do a few outings. We get all this info from council because our son is registered disabled.

That usually equals about 10 outings so roughly a third of the hols . Then we often do life admin - dentists, hair cut, opticians during hols. We visit grandparents a couple times each. We have at least one day a week at home to chill out.

We also do local (ish) free activities, there’s around 8 museums within a short drive that are free, or have a free carer and 1 ticket in gives you use for a year. We take packed lunch. Our local shopping centre has a small park, mini golf and often do treasure hunts all free. Local parks. There’s a board game cafe near us that’s £4 to play for up to 3 hours.

Id check if your registered with your council for emails regarding free activities under haf and sen. See if any local charities offer anything. Look on Mumbler in your area and free days out with kids. Look at getting a max card, and a cea card (free carer to cinema.)

A lot of these schemes are ending to coincide with the two child benefit cap being lifted from next month, will this help you in any way @elliejjtiny?

Do all of your DC have additional needs? If not could any be registered as young carers?

Locally to is there are free activity days (4hr sessions) for children who meet certain criteria, usually £20. The local HA have draws for free farm park/pantomime etc tickets.
Often each individual with a disability can claim a free carer ticket.
Like others have said if you tell us what LA you reside in someone may have good tips.

You’ve got five children tbf. Most families would struggle to buy up to 7 tickets to an attraction. At some point, you knew you’d be choosing between family size and opportunities.

That’s a shame the scheme is ending it’s like when sure start centres were closed it will have a negative effect on those most in need.

The youth clubs near us offer free packed lunches for children a couple of days per week. See what's available in your area. Local Facebook pages are good for this kind of info

It’s not about food, op uses the money for food vouchers for days out I think?

Do you have any local parks that are nice or free museums ? That’s all I can think of

Surely you'd be feeding your children if they were sat at home? So just take that food out with you.

How do you currently support all of your children? Why isn't the 19 year old working?

No its vouchers given for food for children on FSM its £15/ child / week during the school holidays
You csn download them and use them in your chosen supermarket in my LA at least.

Would you be able to give us a rough idea of where you live?
In my area, there are lots of free events for children over the holidays are being advertised, as well as children eating free in certain cafes.

ah right, thanks!