AIBU - free school meals application against my wishes.

[GlitterSand]

Two years ago I became eligible to claim free school meals,
I do not need the assistance so declined the offer.
The local council sent me a silly amount of letters about being entitled to claim, I phoned them and asked them to stop, explained that I didn't need to claim and asked them to make a note on my 'file' not to contact me again.
However, within a few months it started again I ignored them until I received a letter that basically said 'you are entitled to claim this so we are going to put in a claim on your behalf'
This annoyed me and I sent them a letter telling them that I do not give them permission to ever make a claim for FSMs on my behalf, that I wanted it marked on my file that I never want a claim for FSMs to be made in my name.
Someone from the council called me and apologised he said he made a note on my file and I would not be contacted again.

My DC has just started secondary school and for the second day in a row, his student account was not charged for the meal he had.
I just called the school and they have told me that his account has not been charged because he is in receipt of FSM, I told her this is a mistake and she is going to look into it and call me back.

I'm currently on hold to the council.

I'm so angry, how dare they put in a claim without my knowledge or permission and against my explicit request not to.
AIBU to be so annoyed?

I'm just posting to vent really, to try to calm down before I speak to anyone, but I'm just so angry that they can go against my wishes and put in a claim for a benefit that I do not want.

So I would suggest its the Tax man your fiddling then, because I am assuming you have manipulated your Tax return information enough to leave you eligible to claim Child Tax credit/Universal credit, which by the way you should also be including maintenance amounts too as its not just about your earnings is also about household income of which the maintenance counts and should be declared.

OP you've messed up here, you are claiming a benefit of some sort and you are claiming it fraudulently!

Sounds like you're potentially trying to portray a certain image rather than the truth.

The number of sneering accusations on this thread must be close to an all time record.

Good god.
Can all the critical posters please donate 920 quid a year to their childrens schools. Given thats what you expect from op.
Race to the bottom
If you use state school you are equally responsible. Or is it only the poor who are expected to do so?
Op dont be so fucking stuck up, admit you claim benefits and are worse than everyone on here and are therefore responsible for identifying yourself as less than everyone else so tbe school is better for everyone. Come on, its for the greater good. Why should you have rights?

How do they know you are entitled to claim FSM if you have never put a claim in?

Because the council sent me dozens of letters telling me I was eligible to claim it, I told them I was not interested in putting in a claim.

But that still doesn't explain why/how they knew you were eligible in order to send you the letters in the first place. Sorry if I'm being thick OP - I have never claimed FSM but neither have I ever declared my household income or benefits to either the DC's school or my Local Authority.

If you are eligible for free school meals, and claim them, you are not taking money out of the system that would go to someone else. Your family is eligible.

If you are still eligible, you are preventing your child's school claiming money in the form of Pupil Premium, and you prevented his primary school doing so. Schools funding is really squeezed at the moment. Pupil premium has to be spent on making sure that kids from poorer families do as well as they can, and it could be used to pay for all kinds of enrichment activities. At my kids' primary school until recently more than 70% of kids were entitled to claim free school meals (the families are no better off but the government has cut free school meals entitlement for very low waged working families which is still a very high proportion of our school's families). So Pupil Premium is a huge part of the school's budget.

If not needed for your child's needs per se, the money can be spent on things that would benefit all Pupil Premium children, eg no one needs to miss a school trip because mum can't afford it, extra catch up help, all kinds of things. Schools have to make information available on how they have spent Pupil Premium on the school website.\

If you really feel so strongly about this that you would prefer your child's school to lose nearly £1,000 a year in funding as well as paying for his meals (£935 at secondary school, £1320 at primary school), you are totally unreasonable, but you know what, you could have filled in that form in the first place yourself and declared your ex's maintenance payments and all your household income. Then whoever does the assessment could have actually assessed your eligibility correctly and perhaps you wouldn't have got it. But that's why schools want you to fill in such forms.

I would suggest that if you do accept your entitlement so that your son's school gets the money, you donate your son's dinner money to the nearest food bank, then they can help someone else's children to have anything to eat at all.

Extremely silly post...

The income limit for child tax credit is 16,800. Thats enough to afford a marmite sandwich and packet of crisps.

I'm more than happy to donate money to help the school, I'm just not happy about a benefit being claimed in my name against my knowledge or agreement.

OP, you sound like you have strong principles. Neither the Council nor the school has the right to override your wishes and that's your main complaint. There are different ways to help.

Some of the posts on here are getting a bit vitriolic!

To onetimeposter

That might be enough for a marmite sandwich etc...
Unfortunately households have those other pesky little bills to take care of too!

^if you read my posts you would see my point. Op is entitled to give her child a lunch if she wants.
How about all benefits are paid in food vouchers so the funding goes to fund supermarkets as they are understaffed?
Youre blaming the wrong people for the problem.
How short sighted. Lets just all bully the op.

Are you still on hold to council?

I am in a position that I can financially support the school in other ways. whenever there is fundraising I always donate generously, because I can afford to.

You do realise that claiming FSM doesn't stop you donating, OP? No matter how much you donate, you are still depriving the school of £935 a year on top of that.

I don't understand why you think it's wrong to take the money for FSM out of the system, but not wrong to take your tax credits out of the system.

I file tax returns every year and pay a large amount of tax.

It's absolutely none of my business but I think you should probably get someone to look at your finances for you.

To qualify for FSM by virtue of receiving Child Tax Credits your annual income (not including the maintenance) must be under £16,190.

If your annual income is £16,190 then your income tax bill last year would have been £938 - hardly a large amount of tax.

More importantly though if you earned £16,190 your Child Tax Credits would be at least £250 per month. With one child and no childcare you'd need to be earning around £23,600 to only receive £20 per month - and if that's the case you're not eligible for FSM.

But as I said, it's none of my business.

ProfessorMoody, my kids' primary school hasn't been collecting money for meals/trips etc via the teacher for at least the last 7 years, and I imagine longer. We pay the office and they also contact us if we are getting behind by phone and letter in the kids' bags.

DS1's new secondary school uses Parentpay, also used by many primary schools, and I can transfer money into that from my bank. I've so far only used it once and I used my debit card.

My knowledge of Pupil Premium and school finance is from my experience as a parent governor (nearly 5 years and ongoing), and I'm also involved in a local Governors' Association and a Council Scrutiny Panel.

For all those wondering why OP is entitled to FSM, it appears given her recent post that she is in receipt of CTC but not WTC, and that is one of the grounds for FSM.

I am sure others have said this but this will be tied to Pupil Premium, so the school are trying to sign you up to FSM so they can access pupil premium monies, so THEY benefit, (obvs it all comes from the taxpayer in the end!) because your child's "eligibility" for FSM triggers a flow of Pupil Premium money into the school.

LouiseCollins28, I'm mystified at your apparent belief that money going to to the school doesn't benefit pupils. What on earth do you think happens to it? You do know, don't you, that the school has to account for every penny of Pupil Premium money and are very closely scrutinised to check that it is being used to benefit the pupils concerned? Also that one of the stats that schools have to report on (and that is very carefully checked by Ofsted) is the attainment of pupils in receipt of PP?

I have tried to explain how I feel as though in my case it won't benefit the school as much, that I don't feel it is necessary, that my DC is not disadvantaged and doesn't require the extra support that PP is designed to pay for

You know the £900 doesn't just get spent on your child don't you?

The PP money goes into the school pot to be spent as they see fit.

When my DS was small and I was studying I claimed FSM despite him being at no educational or social disadvantage. The actual free meals were arranged directly with the meal company, and the only other financial benefit I got was a bit of uniform. I had to pay for trips and everything else as normal. All schools are different in the way they use PP but it definitely doesn't get spent on the individual child.

(Exceptions being statemented or lac children)

How would the council know what your income was? Unless you work for them, of course.

Are you still on hold to council?

Paying large amounts of tax whilst being eligible for tax credits really doesn’t add up...

Elkie why should govenors, who are basically nosy parents, be given access to FSM eligibility?
Why is everyone blaming the OP for not wanting to fund the school? Other peoples kids arent her concern?

Can all the critical posters please donate 920 quid a year to their childrens schools. Given thats what you expect from op.

Hardly.

Well yes, by proxy.

Op is earning less than £16.5k but lord forbid anyone know that she is a low earner eh? (a large amount of tax op? Give over)