To not understand the threshold for free school meals?

[AllTheBloodyWashing]

I am a lone parent to 11 year old twins who are starting secondary school this week.
I work part time and earn under £16000pa
and get a top-of universal credit, I applied for free school meals for my dc but it has come back and I have been declined.

I’m honestly so upset and really don’t know how I’m going to cope with this extra payment each week for my dc to eat at school, I’m barely scraping by as it is and have just used my last £20 to top-up their dinner cards so they can at least have something for the next two days.

so aibu to not really get the threshold for it, when so many families are really struggling at the moment.

Your meal plan fails -

Pesto if it's the proper stuff has pine nuts in it and nuts are banned in lots of schools.

It also has cheese in it which if you are dairy intolerant won't agree with you.

(However there is nothing stopping you cooking up a tomato based sauce.)

Likewise grated cheese doesn't work if you are dairy intolerant. Most of the cheese alternatives either taste nasty, are expensive or both.

Yes it does. A child retains PP for 6 years even if they move phase.

Very true, but it’s the same for a lot of single mothers who work full time. It’s just yet one more thing for us to do. But it was either Uni, or stay forever stuck in a NMW job that I hated that had zero progression. I went on to do a Masters and will be doing a funded PhD next year (after working for a year) so I guess I just love the fancy book learning too much (as my Gran calls it!).

My elder two are teens now, can swap and change between packed lunches and school dinners, and most importantly - make their own 🤣

I am on about FSM

Yellowplumbob I don’t think anyone is saying packed lunches are easier - it’s obviously not the case - but they are cheaper (I have one child who is Coeliac and DF too).

The government changed the threshold when the introduced universal credit.

it’s another way they are underfunding schools. FSM kids are regarded as pupil premium for funding and schools are obliged to spend the extra funding on these pupils in order to improve their attainment and close the gap between FSM student outcomes and those from wealthier backgrounds.

Without this funding schools will struggle even more, but the government will cheerily claim in a few years that FSM numbers are going down (because they lowered the threshold) and thus people must be financially better off. In reality it’s just another way the government are failing to fund struggling families, children and schools.

I'd laugh but I think you are serious!!

My kids have a few sausage rolls (cooked frozen bag so not homemade!) carrot sticks and strawberries. Maybe a pepperami. Then a chocolate bar or cake. They are not malnourished. Have all survived the last few years on this!

The poster you quoted was talking about PP eligibility.

Yes I know.

It is so low what you need to earn to receive it it's disgusting. X

That was a perfectly adequate lunch suggestion and much healthier than what my DD on FSM eats when she has school lunches (was year 7 last year). She found the lunch queues for the proper canteen far too busy and intimidating, so was getting something from the smaller snack shack place. Often the healthy options had run out, or she just didn't like/fancy them and would most days have a slice of pizza/sausage roll and a cookie, or just a cookie and a bottle of 'juice'. They get the fsm allowance as credit on their card every day, so they can spend it however they like.
This year, she's having packed lunches and they will be similar to what the PP listed. Cheap, she will eat it and healthier than having a cookie and a sausage roll every day.

Yeh I can't afford school dinners either. I'm a middle earner..
Tbh it doesn't bother me then not having school dinners. That's just how it is.

People are encouraged to apply even if the entitlement is a short period. On UC they use your last assessment period to work out entitlement which would need to be £616 or lower and once entitled would be until the end of the phase of schooling they're in.
I wonder if in the long run it would be worth lowering a month's earnings? Sick leave maybe.

That is shockingly low. The bastards.

Benefits don’t count to the £7400 total:

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)

If you qualify for tax credits you get free school meals

sign the petition to give FSM to all:

petition.parliament.uk/signatures/128214928/signed

Sign the petition to raise the threshold:

petition.parliament.uk/signatures/128214988/signed

So why reply “no it doesn’t” when the poster asked if PP continued into secondary?

What kind of shits are Tories if they think that's fair??

Also to the pp who said fsm doesn't go with you to secondary from primary even with the protection status - are you sure? 🤔

Totally agree the threshold is ridiculous.

However Wales are to roll out free school meals to all kids over the next few years. Starting with infant this september(I know it's already free in England for infants). Then adding year's 3 and 4 next year and then 5 and 6 the year after. I think the plan is to do it to High schools after that too. Good idea imo.

The FSM eligibility is ridiculous. I still get them because of the transitional arrangements. I earn £30k a year now, and I'd struggle to pay for school dinners, so I'm grateful for getting it, but I would be able to provide packed lunches on my income. The fact that someone on half my income, with the same number of DCs to feed, won't get FSM is incredibly unfair.

The transitional arrangements are tricky too, we fall into it, but not everyone will.

I now have 2 children who need lunches and it definitely will work out cheaper to make them. I will opt for a school lunch occasionally (if particularly busy or v stressed) but I'm going to have to provide a packed lunch to save money. It's so annoying as pre energy /COL crisis I was fully intending to pay for both the get a school lunch and enjoy 1 less thing to worry about!

Where does this money come from? Something else out the money pot for schools I assume?

I'm not sure the nutritional difference between carrot sticks and an apple compared to the measley handfull of veg school dinners get. There is a salad bar but most kids avoid it. Apart from the bread section and tinned fruit. They're all over that.

Surely we need to keep money in education for education.

Moving from primary to secondary while under the transitional protection doesn't mean it stops. You should not have to re-apply, just inform the school that they receive FSM.

Packed lunch!