Free School Meals --- I'm so confused!

[ChangeMyNameAllTheTime29]

I have a DD 5 in year 1 and she is entitled to free school meals until she is in year 2.

My DS 3 has just started the nursery school and theyve asked us to apply for free school meals for him. But according to the requirements for it DP earns too much

It says if your on UC and working and earning less than £1,850.00 for 3 payment periods then youd be entitled to FSM... DP earnt £2700 in 3 pay periods so we arnt entitled to FSM for DS

But we are for DD the year above and we will be next year for DS? This makes no sense to me!

I just dont understand it, please can somebody explain it to me?

Nursery was £5 a week for his dinners. School want £10.50 which literally double what we paid at nursery

Your DD isn’t entitled to FSM as such - they’re just something that every kid in YrR, Yr1 and Yr2 gets. It’s not linked to income in any way.

Your DS, however, would only be entitled if your income was below the cutoff, and it isn’t. Therefore you pay for his meals until he hits YrR.

You need to be claiming one of these benefits;

• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance

' income-related Employment and Support Allowance ' support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

• the guaranteed element of Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
• Working Tax Credit run-on - paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
• Universal Credit - if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

Also says:

Your child may also get free school meals if you get any of these benefits and your child is both:

• younger than thecompulsory age for starting school
• in full-time education

You will need to be on a low income to get free school meals in nursery

Your older child gets free school meals for the first 3 years regardless of income

All children in reception, year 1 and year 2 receive free school meals through the Universal Free Infant School Meals funding.

Children in nursery and all year groups from year 3 upwards receive free school meals only if their parents are on certain benefits.

Primary schools receive pupil premium funding for each child whose parents have ever claimed free school meals. The pupil premium is calculated through the number of children who are, who have ever been, on free school meals on the day of the spring term census.

Parents apply for free school meals. This is registered on the school’s information centre which is then used to inform the Department for Education which children are eligible for pupil premium funding.

Surely you know that if your DP is earning £2700 a month, which is over £30k pa if you are listing the gross salary, and close to £50kpa if you are listing the net salary, that you are not going to be entitled to FSM on anything other than a universal basis?

Universal free meals do not cover nursery, only YR-Y2

Assuming you are in England, your DS will qualify when he is in YR up until the end of Y2. Neither of your children will qualify once they are in Y3 or older, unless your income drops significantly or there is a change in policy.

FSM and UFISM (Universal Free Infant School Meals) are two different things.

We ask ALL our parents to give us the information and permission we need to check their entitlement for FSM as this gives the school an extra amount per qualifying child. Currently this entitlement then remains with the child until the end of phase of education.

UFISM is the current scheme where all pupils in Reception, and Years 1 and 2 (not nursery) can have a free school meal. The amount the school receives to cover this is decided by the numbers submitted in the school census in October (today in fact). So if we had 40 children in our reception class today who had a meal but by January we take in more children AND more parents decide to switch to school meals from packed lunches and we have 60 children taking a lunch then we are actually going to be the cost of 20 meals short every day. That’s why schools often have a special menu on census day to encourage extra children to opt for a meal.

Even if you get the universal infant free school meals, if you fulfil the criteria for income based free school meals, school want you to claim them so they can get the pupil premium

It's only if he is there full time AND you are receiving certain benefits, not just him being there full time.

@ChangeMyNameAllTheTime29

Your 5 year old child is not entitled to FSM. She is entitled to universal school meals that all children in YR, Y1 and Y2 are entitled to, irrespective of household income.

Children in nursery classes are not eligible for the universal meals, so you will have to pay unless your child is attending full time, and you are in receipt of the means tested FSM.

Surely you know that if your DP is earning £2700 a month, which is over £30k pa if you are listing the gross salary, and close to £50kpa if you are listing the net salary, that you are not going to be entitled to FSM on anything other than a universal basis?

DP earnt £2700 over the space of 3 months. If we were on 50k a year I'd not be worrying over £40 a month on school dinners. We get most of our income from universal credit at the minute

Universal Credit - if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

What is your household income per year?

Your DS isn’t at compulsory school age, he’s not in school reception, he would be aged 4 turning 5. He is in nursery, you receive free hours from the government to cover this (up to 15/30 dependant on yours circs).

Being in a school nursery makes no difference, if you were in a private nursery you would still need to pay for the food aspect - even with the 15 or 30 free hours.

Your Ds doesn’t start school until he is 4, until then you will need to pay for the food aspect if it’s not included in his free hours.

If most of your income come form universal credit then your probably entitled to fsm and you should claim then because it means extra money for the school and attention for you child. You have nothing to lose by claiming, so you may as well just do it.

You've got to think of there being two kinds of free school meals that are entirely separate.

All children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 get a free lunch at school, doesn't matter what the family income is.

All children from Nursery to Secondary can apply for free school meals, and if they meet the financial criteria, they will get it.
If the child qualifies, the school gets extra funding on top of the cost of the meals. This is a significant income for schools.

So even though your child might get a free school meal due to being R-Y2, it is still in the school's interests that families check to see if they meet the income criteria.

I think they might be just over or borderline as 2700/3 = 900 per month
900x12 = £10800 per year

Depending what tax is paid you may or may not get down under £7400 which is the criteria for free school meals at nursery

He will be eligible next year. You earn too much this year. All kids get them from Recep to year 2

So there is a long standing entitlement for children of very low income families. Then the government decided to offer every pupil in reception to year 2 a free school meal. (Un)Helpfully the two ‘schemes’ often get confused. You aren’t eligible for the former but are for the later.

In a nutshell every child gets free school meals in the infants regardless of income. You don’t apply for it, it’s rolled out nationally.

It doesn’t include juniors and nursery.

Those on lower incomes will have to apply for free school meals once their child is in juniors.

I assume it’s the same for the nursery?

She may be eligible this year depending on how much tax they pay on their income

All Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children in England are entitled to free school meals.

When they enter KS2 / Year 3, they have to be eligible for them due to a very low family income. Pupil Premium children

I don't think preschools/nurseries have anything to do with those entitlements; separate criteria.

All children get free school meals in reception and year 1, regardless of salary or benefits. No criteria.

In nursery, not everyone is entitled to free school meals like they are in reception. It's completely separate.

You need to meet the criteria, which you don't. He might be in for a full session and you might receive UC but if your DP earns over the threshold then you won't get it.