To ask why do people not working claiming FSM get this for free?

[Sprinkledusting]

I’ve just discovered if you claim FSM and even if you’re not working, you can send your child to morning/after school club for free. And not just in our school either.
There are also sports clubs and holiday clubs during school holidays that state they are free for those who claim FSM. To claim free school meals your income has to be so low that you’re not working full time or not working at all, which of the people I know, most are not.
But those who are working have to pay for breakfast club/holiday clubs.

Can someone explain to me the logic behind this? As I simply don’t understand it.

Don't you just love it when the posters show up suggesting 'poor people' mainly women should be force into being sterilised! It's MN Benefit bashing bingo isn't it.

And they wonder why people refuse benefits, FSM, and pupil premiums for the school.

I very clearly meant prevent children from being produced whose parents cannot afford them. Not ‘preventing disability’. I thought this would be obvious?

No. It's not. I couldn't afford my kids when my ex walked out. 15 years later, the Government hasn't managed to get a penny out of my self employed ex, despite a fairly obvious trail of account manipulation that I can see with no financial background whatsoever. Free childcare one day a week when my kids were little enabled me to gain experience in education. A student loan, bursary, tax credits and FSM got me.through a PGCE. And I have worked full time ever since in a shortage subject. Maybe looking at ways of supporting rather than just writing people off would enable more people into meaningful employment?

You think Labour will do any better? Maybe you think Starmer will gallop in on his white charger and tax 'The Rich' oooh 80% of earnings so benefits can be raised,nay tripled at least so women can continue breeding with feckless idiots and then expect said tax payers to pick up the tab cos 'choices'? Jesus wept

Why are you blaming women? How about being part of a culture which seeks solutions to 'feckless idiots', bringing workable and swift solutions to child maintenance avoidance (not the current trend of writing off huge debts)? How about looking at free, round the clock childcare that enables shift work, night work, early starts, late finishes for the lone parent? How about a change in mindset that stops parents hiding behind 'well, we don't know what goes on behind closed doors' approach to relationship breakdown with 'she gets all the benefits/she got the house/her new partner earns a fortune so why should I pay?

But mainly recognise that someone working full time on minimum wage is making an important and valuable contribution to society and as such, should not have to justify wanting children, having a roof over their heads or wanting to put food on the table?

you have to earn less than that but will receive benefits on top, most likely putting your income up to similar to 2 adults on minimum wage

Stop making shit up. Seriously. You add nothing to a debate when you just write 'most likely-. Definitely not.

I understand where you’re coming from original poster.
I was in a similar position years ago, it must be even harder now with the rise in the cost of living. You have my sympathy.
i think it is ridiculous if all pupil premium pupils get free school meals, as they still get pupil premium if they qualified for free school meals in the last 6 years!

It isn’t ’definitely not’ though. It’s true. I am better off than people on minimum wage and most of that is benefits. I do work, but not above the FSM threshold in terms of earnings.

Not all students who get pupil premium also get FSM.

Do they, in England? They don’t in Wales. Actual free meals are being rolled out to all primary pupils but the pupil premium has to be applied for annually, as did FSM before the roll out (and still does for secondary).

That might vary by county. In our county it is definitely an annual application.

My DC works at holiday clubs coaching sports at a school where nearly all this kids fall into this category.

It was a real eye opener when they first started, as pp have said these children would never get any opportunities to do any sports or clubs without it. They get to engage in some healthy activity, get fed at lunch time and have something positive in their lives.

I know there will always be some who lie just outside of FSM, and yes in an ideal world this would be extended for all families on benefits, but at least it is provided for those with the most need - and it really is needed.

this is simply untrue

It's actually often the lack of bus fare to said activity, the inability of the parent with health issues or disability to take the child there, it's struggling to take younger siblings on the journey there and back, it's the neurodiverse child being unable to cope with the change of a different environment of said activity. It is the club being too short for the parent to use it as childcare to work. It's the child simply not wanting to go to the activity because they would not enjoy it. It's the child visiting grandparents that week or going on holiday ( yes kids on fsm go on holiday) . It's the child not knowing other kids going to the activity and feeling anxious. it's the parent wanting to spend quality time with their dc that week.

Thank you, tax payer.

It will take a very very long time, probably decades, to repair the damage the Tories have done. So no, I don't think Starmer is going to charge in etc. No one with an IQ higher than an ice cube does.

As for women "breeding" well, we actually need women to have more children, not fewer. So it makes sense to support and nurture those children, whoever they are born to. They are our future.

There are some very angry Tories on MN lately. I guess electoral oblivion is hard to face.

I hope the tories lose and will be voting labour but even they have admitted we are too broke to make any meaningful changes, so it can’t all be corruption can it, they’ve just scrapped their flagship green pledge because we can’t afford it which is deeply disappointing

There’s a lot of expectation around Labour

It was easy to see their numbers were pie in the sky, hence the u turn

I’m a disabled single parent and because of my disability and chronic pain I cannot work. So you’re telling me that my child should be deprived of opportunities because I’m disabled and cannot work?

No but what ‘opportunities’ would they be missing through not attending after school club which most children don’t anyway? And does it mean those other children are also deprived through not going, so it should be free for all?

When my children were at junior school their breakfast club and after school clubs were free, all because we live in a "deprived" area.

There isn’t any money, the public are having a really hard time wrapping their heads around this and want the moon on a stick. I honestly don’t know what will happen; further sticking plasters probably as there’s no cash for root and branch change. Nobody wants to hear the real reasons we are in this mess. It’s a shame, we could have such a great society if people would wake up and smell the coffee.

Idk there are so many threads showing an expectation of more funding

If people look at the policies they’d see there isn’t any. The outrage from their own party over the green thing shows they’ve sold in higher expectations than they will be able to deliver on

The numbers are out

Do you think there’s a maintenance fairy that shows up to your privately owned, mortgaged house or do you live in the real
world?

Lol

I don't believe the Tories want to win this GE.

They've g(r)ifted the coffers to their chums/donors, over the past 13 years, to the extent there is nowt left.

Now they want to stand on the sidelines for five years very loudly blaming Labour. They've overloaded the parasitical HoL in advance of this with the purpose of stymieing anything of use Labour attempt to achieve.

Fast forward five years and the goldfish electorate will consider the Tories the best option, through their prudent fiscal management (lol), to dig us out of mess 'Labour' created in five years .....