The threshold for Free School Meals (FSM) is shockingly low, so let’s raise it.

[PrimarilyParented]

on the back of another thread, please sign the petition to raise the threshold for free school meals. It’s currently £7,400 a year. Families are struggling and so are schools. Without qualifying for FSM there is no pupil premium funding for children (£985 per pupil in secondary and £1385 per primary school pupil www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium/pupil-premium).

According to the government almost 2 million children are currently in receipt of FSM:
explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics

yet almost double that figure live in poverty with 3.9 million children in the uk living in poverty:
cpag.org.uk/child-poverty/child-poverty-facts-and-figures

so 1.9 million children in poverty don’t receive FSM and the subsequent pupil premium funding. Both schools and children are being short changed by the government.

AIBU to think government needs to raise the threshold for eligibility include all children living in poverty? If you don’t think IABU then please sign the petition.

petition.parliament.uk/signatures/128214988/signed

I've no fathomable clue how anyone qualifies for them in the first place. If you get >1p of working tax credits you're ineligible and if you earn over £7,400 you're ineligible, but you get working tax credit when you earn under £6770.

How do you even get them?!

I’ve just signed, only 104 signatures though ☹️

Signed as well! Very rare I sign these things, and I would never qualify even if they raise the threshold but it’s shockingly low.

I feel the same about the threshold for Healthy Start vouchers as well though, I couldn’t believe my friend who is a single mother didn’t qualify because of the hours she does/amount she earns from working. She’s topped up by UC, but if she had EXACTLY the same income, but wholly from UC and not some of it from working she’d qualify for HS vouchers (well it’s a card now I believe). So you are literally penalised for working as much as you can.

I've signed - i was a FSM kid for most of my childhood.

I don't think you can get FSM if you work - the in work benefits seem to make you ineligible from what I can see. They don't present it as such - but that's how it works out. Even when I was on minimum Wage I didn't qualify. Happy to be corrected by anyone who works and gets FSM though!

@madaboutsaffron I get FSM I checked last week and requested a letter. I can't really explain to you how I qualify because I don't quite understand either. I moved over to UC and took a lower paid role and had high childcare costs at the time. I now have increased my earnings so was quite shocked too.

petition.parliament.uk/signatures/128214988/signed

Please use this link.
Signed.

It's an absolute insult to children.