Just at the cut off for free school meals

[Velveteengreen]

We claim UC and are just under the threshold for FSM. Therefore all the holiday clubs and activities that we could access during school holidays, we’ll need to pay for ourselves. which isn’t feasible. We’ll just about be able to afford to feed our DS this summer holiday as it is and we’ll probably end up back in the overdraft.
I so understand there has to be a cut off point, but I can’t help feeling a little envious when friends who do qualify for FSM are talking about sending their DC into holiday camps for the entire 6 weeks for free. Plus a lot of them will get money from councils for food and essentials too. Same as last year.
I’m honestly not trying to upset anybody but I just feel really down and worried about the upcoming holidays.

Been there OP and its stressful. Any chance either of you could up your hours at work or get help from extended family? No other suggestions sorry.

No and no. Unfortunately.

I don’t know how it works but are you able to do any voluntary salary sacrifice into something like a pension so bring you under?

how much are you out by? Why not drop a few hours instead?

The easiest way to do this is to pay a higher % of your pension contributions should you pay into your company pension, you might need to play around with the percentages.

If you claim UC, are you eligible for the 85% childcare costs element that would cover most of the summer holiday camp costs?

Would taking a week if unpaid parental leave put you in the bracket below?

Like a pp said up your work Pension contributions to put yourself under the threshold.

we are both already paying the max into our pensions, I don’t think we can up it

If you are already at the max, can you pause or reduce that over the summer to make ends meet? Not ideal but better than going hungry or only just being able to feed your ds. Sounds really tough and I get why you're frustrated

The cut off wage for free school meals is £7400pa. Are you sure you're only just over that?

Yep that makes a great society doesn’t it.

If you are struggling on full time hours op and you have been in your job for some time please start looking around for something that will pay better.

This suggests that the OP is working part-time only and receiving a lot of UC because of that. Is there not an OH who can contribute?

I wouldn't be jealous of the holiday camps, most of the ones near me are for 2 hours and a parent needs to drop and pick up. Longest are 6 hours which is no use to anyone working. They really are only aimed at keeping the children vaguely entertained

From the government website - the £7400 is after tax and after deducting the UC - so not gross income

The cut off wage for free school meals is £7400pa....

Come on now... with two adults who are able to pay in to a pension... I think you are both a little cheeky.

Minimum wage is £23,000 annually for full time work, with two of you, that's £46,000 a year.

Lets say you are earning £9,000pa between you, that means that you're earning 1/5 of what you could be. And instead of a potential 40 hours, you are working 8 hours each to be so close to that FSM cut off.

You both need to up your hours and get back to work instead of wanting everything for free.

This is the problem with this country. Take take take.

You can make voluntary contributions, the limit is £60k a year in total!

So what do you earn @Velveteengreen?

Make up to £60k (each) in pension contributions so the OP can bring her household income in under £7400 for free school meals? Actually ridiculous!

Quite. I'm appalled at people telling her to drop hours or pay more into a pension to get meals or holiday clubs.

Why not up your hours so you earn more and get less UC and have more money to pay for the family you wanted.

I'm confused about you being just over the threshold. That's £7,400. You must earn more than that if you're able to contribute to pensions, plus there's 2 incomes? Are you wrong about being just over?

Max as in how much your company allows or gov max (£60k).

Are you sure your company doesn’t allow you to input into additional voluntary contributions AVCs, it’s just they won’t match them.

Mine qualify for fsm but don't get six weeks of free holiday club 🤔 in fact I've never heard of this being a thing. Are your friends exaggerating to piss you off

I was actually being sarcastic to be fair…