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.

Completely agree. It’s mad to me that my infant school kids get free school meals when they don’t need it. I’d prefer to pay for them. And £7400 is a horribly low figure to have to get down to before being eligible. I also think the figure should be slightly higher the more children you have. A family with 1 child can have a higher standard of living on a lower figure than a family with 4

I don’t know how I feel about this. One of DS’s Freinds was on free school meals all the way through because his Mum and Dad split before he started school. Once both he and his Sibling were both in school the Mum started to work again and ended up as a Deputy Head in a local primary.

Under the current system her DC got free school meals throughout which seems odd although possibly cheaper to administer.

What woukd possible be cheaper is to give all DC free school meals. France seem to do this but school days are less, I think tgat thru usually do 4?

So not a change in eligibility, only that people won’t continue receiving the free meals if their income has increased past the threshold?
Fair enough

I’d be interested to hear from someone who disagrees but who understand we are not discussing a change of threshold but a change in continued eligibility.

It was mad seeing parents who earnt more than I do, with nicer cars than I have and I would have to arrange for them to have supermarket vouchers in the holidays as in out LA they were also entitled to £10 per week per child over holiday. We used to do Sainsbury’s as there was one walking distance to most families in the area and one mum asked if I could get her Waitrose vouchers instead 😂

Agree with this. Always on these kind of threads there appears the myth of the 'nutritious hot meal' and kids using cutlery. The reality is that the majority of schools serve crap beige rubbish - because it's cheap.

Source: my kids, who were and are eligible for FSM because I was poor for a while. Even when money was tight, though, they took packed lunches, because the school offering was so dire. It's a huge waste - either fund it properly to allow schools to serve actual balanced meals or don't bother at all.

You could have donated what you would have paid for school lunches to the school for those things. My DC is in reception so gets free school meals and I pay extra money when any donations are asked for. Lots of parents do, it’s how our school pays for lots of the extras.

I don't agree or disagree, but I think there's a chance it'll end up costing more overall.

The reason it was continued to the end of the schooling period was because people who are eligible are more likely to become eligible again. Many folks earning less than 8k are in insecure jobs. They're not likely to suddenly start earning 50k.

The cost of repeatedly checking and means testing applications will be significant, especially in areas where low paid and unstable work is common.

Absolutely. The current system is the worst of both worlds and I actually think it’s resulting in all kids eating lower quality and less nutritious food than they would under a means tested system.

Not just administrative, financial too, as access to online checking is only available by paying for it if the local authority has washed their hands of the whole school meals system (which they have in my area).

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

It's Primary 1 to Primary 5 in Scotland

People are missing the mark with £7400 , that won't be the household income, that's individual income without any benefits, someone earning less than £7400 will be entitled to various elements of universal credit depending on circumstances

I disagree with it. 90% of parents earning less than 7k when their child starts school aren't going to become much better off in the next few years while their child is at school. Most will just work more hours now their child is at school which will easily take them over 7k.

The threshold used to be earning 16k before they changed it to 7.4k makes much more sense to change it back to 16k and do away with everyone getting free meals from reception to year 2, I mean what is the point in that?

…would be terrible if that’s what was happening.

I think you completely misunderstood my post.

This bit, the opening bit -

"Is it not 7400 after UC etc" meaning UC, plus 7400...

So fuck off with your ffs and your fucking whining because I've been a single parent on the edge of poverty since the last Labour government.

Seen all the policies.

Ffs indeed.

Like many PP, I don't see the issue with reapplying every year for FSM eligibility - circumstances can change so much year to year.

In our area though, the cost of school meals is due to go up again to £3.50 per day and (IMO) it's just not worth it. I pay because DS enjoys the mealtime atmosphere, a lot of his friends have school dinners and if he took a packed lunch he'd have to sit separately, and he does like most of the meals - but packed lunches would be vastly cheaper and probably more nutritious. Plus the portions aren't even very big, he usually comes out of school ravenous! So I'll continue to pay but very resentfully as it makes him happy to have his school dinners, but I really fail to see how the county council (who set the prices) can justify the cost increase when the quality and/ or portion size won't increase at all.

@MissAmyPond my DS likes a packed lunch because those are seated and eat first and thus get let out to play first, so maximise playtime. Kids logic is funny isn’t it 🫢

Exactly this.

Plus the FSM6 helped the school budget to have stability from the funding rather than fluctuating funding

In my view free school meals should be means-tested for all DC.

There’s absolutely no need for the parents pulling up in Range Rovers and Jaguars at my local primary to have their DCs’ lunch funded by taxpayers. That money could and should be used elsewhere.

@ARichtGoodDram if it negatively impacts the schools i agree it’s counterintuitive.

Agree - my kids go to a school in quite an affluent area and there’s a nice array of luxury cars. We have a private school in the village which has a worse ofsted rating than the state school and so their kids go to the state school rather than the private one.

Yes, this really isn't uncommon. There are a lot of very wealthy families that use state schools. It's ridiculous that they enjoy FSMs funded by the government when cuts are being made elsewhere in schools.

I was thinking this too. School funding is already more stretched than ever before under this government, if it means schools lose a chunk of their pupil premium that will have a huge negative impact

@Bumpitybumper totally agree. I can tell by the tone of letters and messages that there’s a reluctance for all parents to pay for trips etc. I’d rather pay for school meals and have more money for things like that.

So what should the wealthy families do??

i am not wealthy but by no means would I meet the means as it currently stands as it’s very low and just feels like I pay and pay and pay and pay tax and get nothing in return! Was looking forward to free school meals next year when dc starts reception. Finally feels like getting something, anything, back from all the tax I’ve paid in. Because of their age have missed out on a lot of the new funding for nursery and having to pay hugely increased fees because the funding is terrible ect ect means the funded hours have basically become meaningless!