Changes to free school meal eligibility…

[AlwaysCoffee25]

”As of April 1st, 2025, the "transitional protection" for free school meals, which allowed continued eligibility even if income increased, will end. New applicants after this date, earning above £7,400 net per annum, will no longer be eligible”

I don’t see the big deal, if you need to reapply you can.

Whilst I think in an ideal world all children should free school meals the reality is we can’t sustain every concession as a county and stopping continued eligibility if your financial circumstances change seems sensible to me 🧐

Although it seems odd timing with free breakfast being introduced (it hasn’t reached my DC’s school) the cynic in me thinks it’s because they know the take up on breakfast will be significantly lower than lunches.

It wasn't forever - just until the end of that education period (so end of primary or high Scotland). Scotland is the same for those who qualify under certain criteria.

The eligibility used to be earning less than 16k a year now it is 7.4k so basically working less than 10 hours a week on minimum wage that barely applies to anyone.

Would make much more sense to raise it to 16k again and do away with free meals for all reception -year 2 what's the point in that anyway

I totally agree and I don’t get the outrage. I’m quite happy to pay for my children’s meals and funding be directed to learning (although I know it doesn’t always automatically followed).

@Scrubberdubber yes I’ve never understood the logic with FSM for the first two years.

I never thought I'd see a Labour government taking food of children living in poverty. And £7400pa is absolutely poverty.

I think this is one of the good things regarding UC rather than formerly moving from IS to WFTC and CTC.

When this happened to me, moving onto WTC I automatically had to pay for school meals even though I was no better off. £50 a month was a huge chunk out of income. Child had been having school dinners for 3 years previously and enjoyed them... So I carried on.
Second child qualified to the ongoing Pupil Premium and FSM regardless. It was a great help as a single parent.

We were just discussing this yesterday as colleague who qualified for FSM when her kids were wee, is still getting them now they're 14, 12 and 8 and she now earns £45k. She's told school etc but they've told her they can't do anything as once you qualify, then you qualify. She says herself she really doesn't need it and would rather the finding be redirected.

Is it not 7400 earned after Universal Credit? An income for a single person of 7400 is still likely to qualify for full, if not near to full Universal Credit on top.

Yeah it's daft, my kids get free school meals yet we have a household income of £90k. All because we were both unemployed for a couple of months during COVID.

Yep seems pointless to me as you can see from the user name I'm a money grubbing scrubber and was ready to be outraged but it appears it only applies to new applicants.

Still a shame for anyone who's circumstances changed from earning 6k to 8k etc. Its easy to see many people start working full-time when the kids start school but they probably still won't earn that much but it will easily be over 7k so this will screw them over

They're not taking it from people with £7k, they're stopping the run on

Not quite. The transitional arrangements were introduced as part of the UC rollout. As that was delayed several times the transitional arrangements were extended. This date of 1/4/25 has been notified to schools for about a year.

I think it's ridiculous that people still got it even after their circumstances changed.

My friend got free school meals for her kids when one was in secondary school and one was in primary school. At the time her marriage had broken up and she wasn't working.

Fast forward 6 years, she owns her own house outright, has a good job, had a 3rd child that is in primary school and still gets free school meals!

For various reasons my daughter was entitled at the start of primay school, was protected by the transitional protection when she started secondary and despite this change she will carry on being entitled all the way through secondary because our council (maybe all) says they stay eligible until they finish the phase of education they are in despite any changes of circumstances and yes I do earn over now.

No one is asking people to live in 7400k a year, it’s the limit on top of benefits ffs. So housing benefit, universal credit whatever else. Not exactly gonna be making someone rolling in it but they aren’t expected to live pay rent and bills and feed their kids on 7.4k

where I work the lowest income families normally end up as single parent families who are new to the country and they do get help with uniform costs, vouchers for food in holidays, activity clubs etc I don’t think they’re the ones this proposal is talking about, they genuinely need the free school meals

It's not a new thing to decide to take the transitional protection away - the conservatives had set it to end a few years ago and kept on extending it at the very last moment (I won a small informal bet last year because I'd said if it's extended again, it'll mean there's going to be an election).

Everybody who receives it now will still receive it until the end of their current phase of schooling, but they will have to reapply (and might not be eligible) if they're moving up to secondary in September.

The main annoyance is that not all councils assist with establishing eligibility, which places the burden squarely upon schools and parents (as the only automatic checking facility is something the school has to pay for).

It's 3 years isn't it - reception and then years 1 and 2? I don't understand it all either. I can't see any logical reason to fund it for only those years, but I also thinking funding it universally at all is a bit mad. Obviously it's nice for me not having to pay for DS's lunches until next year, but it's not a good use of state money.

I did wonder if it would place an administrative burden on the schools.

I thought it was until year 2 rather than including but happy to be corrected.

I do think there are benefits to society for children that age to sit down and eat a meal at a table with cutlery. Unfortunately I know children who have started school never having done that.

I'm not paying currently for my year 2 child's lunches, but maybe I'm actually racking up a mega bill with the school...!

@Fedupwiththecuts - could you explain how this change will impact on pupil premium, please? If I'm correct, a pupil who was eligible for free school meals in the last 6 years currently gets pupil premium for the school. Will this continue (obviously with reduced numbers of pupils eligible)? There's going to be an impact on low-income families of not getting the FSM but also on school budgets particularly in areas of high deprivation.

I do agree the way FSM is applied is slightly strange given all the clamp downs on benefits in recent years. My child was eligible for it years ago (no income due to me being a student). I've never had to reapply and now years later I'm on a good salary and it's the money continues to be automatically credited to their school account.

I don’t see the issue with removing permanent entitlement. It’s ridiculous that you could start earning £100k, or win the lottery, and still
be eligible for FSM because you were once having a hard time. The money should go where it’s needed.

At the same time I think universal free lunches for infants should be scrapped and a much higher quality meal funded for those who actually need it. I live in a very MC area where I’m certain that 95% of parents could afford their children’s lunches with no issue, myself included. Yet all the kids get fed a really crappy school lunch which seems to be a tiny portion of fish fingers, pizza or some other junk followed by a sugary dessert. Attempting to get the kids to take a healthier packed lunch is hard work because they feel the odd one out and want the crap the school is serving. I would much, much rather that twice the amount per head is spent on something filling and nutritious for kids that need it and the rest of us can either pay for the same or send in lunch.

It’s 3 years… reception, yr 1 and yr 2. Not sure how it works in Scotland though where there is no Yr R

I had no idea that happened, of course it needs to be changed so people aren’t eligible once over the threshold.