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.

I've been a working single mum. I know, and I actually agree. But there is help isn't there? Childcare vouchers, or UC pay up to 80% of Childcare.

Its because being at the income level that qualifies for FSM is strongly linked to poorer outcomes for children and the government is targeting support to these children. Obviously it makes certain generalisations that won't be true for everyone. But the idea is to give extra input to these children to provide some of the opportunities they may otherwise not have.
Bluntly, there are children who will achieve better outcomes from being in school clubs than being at home, and children qualifying for FSM are disproportionately likely to be in this group.

You don't get the 80% if you don't get uc.. having a mortgage won't allow me to get benefits. Ans this means I can't get help with childcare either.. so I need to juggle wity a full time job and a child during school holidays, which is totally wrong..

You claim UC and have a mortgage. I do.

It's not the mortgage that stops you getting UC. It's your income. I don't know what the threshold is though.

There's definitely a mismatch somewhere though. Having been just above the threshold previously I know how hard it can be at that point.

Do you not get 85% of your childcare costs back via UC?

I’m a working single parent with a mortgage. My income is around 36k which is bang on average. I can claim about £170 UC per month, which includes around £50 for my ds2 to attend after school club. If I had higher childcare costs I’d get more.