Is it true that free school meals are opt out?

[BossyBanana]

Or were they in later 2017?

And have they ever been compulsory if you are entitled to them?

if someone was eligible but did not want to claim was it an opt out or compulsory service?

Did you not always have to apply for them. They aren't compulsory

That’s what I though, but the council are trying to argue that they are or were opt out but also that if you are eligible you couldn’t end the claim.

I wonder if that relates to the Universal Credit rollout. I found this online:

If your child used to receive free school meals but you no longer meet the criteria, your child will continue to receive free school meals until the end of the Universal Credit rollout period (currently scheduled to end in March 2022). This will apply even if your earnings rise above the new threshold or if you stop being entitled to Universal Credit.

There was a claim for income support made at the time but no universal credit.

Did you apply for housing benefit or council tax support?

I am no expect on this subject, but understand that once you have become eligible for FSM your eligibility is relevant for other benefits. you do not have to actually take them for the period following eligibility but the fact that you have been eligible is relevant for other sources of funding to be unlocked.

No housing benefit but there was a claim for council tax assistance.

Are they talking about the free school meals offered to all KS1 children? Not sure if this still happens but I'm pretty sure the scheme was in place in 2017.

Is it because the schools get extra money for kids on FSM so they want to keep them on the register.

I can't see how they can force a parent or child take meals they don't want.

Schools get ALOT of extra funding for children who get free school meals, so parents who are eligible need to apply in order for the school to get this funding. However, the child in question does not have to eat the lunches and could take a packed lunch in instead. It's more of a paper exercise really.

Please apply if you are entitled even if you don't use them. Schools get funding for the period your child is eligible and for 6 years after the last claim.

The child was in KS2 so definitely not included in the universal fsm for foundation children.

It’s not me but my sister.

She was in a situation in later 2017 where she had to apply for some benefits but the situation was temporary and she didn’t want the busybody school secretary to know about it, her DC go to a very niace School in a niace area, where gossip spreads like wild fire (and the school secretary is one of the worst for it) so she didn’t want everyone finding out about her temporary financial situation.

She was told she was eligible to apply but wrote to them to tell them she did not want to claim.

A few months later a comment was made by a TA that made her suspect the school thought she was struggling financially, she called to check but was told no fsm applications had been made or granted.
Fast forward to a couple of months ago and another comment was made about her needing help paying for a trip, when she queried it she was told that the school receives funds to help some pupils so if she needed any help she only had to ask.
Again she contacted the council and was told by email that there was definitely no claims for free school meals or pupil premium in their name.

Then last week she was told that the school are receiving the money for her DCs.
She contacted the council again and was then told in an email that in 2017 when the received her letter saying she did not want to claim someone made a mistake and actually made a claim in error.

She was clearly unhappy about this and told them so and now they have changed their story and are claiming that the the eligibility letter she was sent was actually telling her a claim would be made unless she opted out but even when they received her letter saying she did not want to claim as she was eligible she could not cancel the claim and it carried on, but at not point did she ever receive any letters or emails about it, and they repeatedly denied there was an active claim.

The thing is she never received free school meals, she continued to be billed for and pay school meals.

She’s really upset that this was all done against her wishes, she’s quite a private person, she has anxiety and is so upset about everyone at the school thinking she is struggling financially.

It does sound a bit odd from the school but her claiming would really help the school with funding whether she used the money or not.

I honestly think energy would be better put into trying to help her manage her anxiety than worrying about this paperwork. It sounds to me as if people were only ever trying to be kind and make sure she knew there was financial support there if she needed it rather than gossiping about her.

I think if it was just about the school getting some extra funding she wouldn’t mind but it’s that she specifically told them she did not want to claim, they ignored her request, put in a claim against her wishes and then repeatedly denied there was a active claim when she asked which she is annoyed about.

The school are generally pretty awful with gossiping amongst staff and parents and it is very cliquey.
They have also been difficult in the past about a few things, so DSIS already feels like she is not well liked.

Also the fact that she continued to be charged for school meals despite them obviously knowing about and claiming the funds for free school meals means she doesn’t feel like they deserve any extra funding in her name.
She said there was even a time when she was late paying and the secretary came out to the playground at pick up and told her in front of several other parents (and loud enough for anyone nearby to hear) that if she didn’t pay the money owed her DC would no longer be able to have a school lunch until the debt was cleared, she owed for one week and the money was in her DCs backpack, they had just forgotten to hand it in.

Pupil Premium Grant is paid for pupils who have been eligible for FSM at any time in the last six years. All schools are struggling for money right now so it's extremely selfish of your sister not to allow the school to access this extra funding as it seems her children were at some point eligible for FSM even if she did not want to claim.

You say the school is gossipy amongst staff and parents - for a member of staff to tell a parent that another family was/wasn’t eligible for FSM would be highly unprofessional and possibly a disciplinary matter. Who is or isn’t eligible for FSM really isn’t of interest to school staff; teachers and TAs have to be aware who is but it really isn’t staffroom gossip.

This reminds me of a pupil I taught...we received PPG funding for her. At parents eve I said to her mum that she could have sats revision guides free of charge as she was PPG eligible...her mum was surprised and said they’d never had FSM and couldn’t work out why her daughter was getting the funding! She was happy to have the free books though 😂

On some older school management information systems it was as simple as putting a tick in the wrong box which meant that people who had never claimed FSM were suddenly getting pupil premium funding. Once it has been uploaded to the DfE there is nothing that can be done! I have seen it happen once or twice. Audits etc. being carried out by the DfE on how schools process FSM mean they are geing much more careful!