Does anyone know if the free school meal eligibity will change in April due to Tax credit changes?

[oneraisedeyebrow]

The title says it all really.

Currently children are eligible for FSM if you claim Childrens Tax credit but not working TC and earn less than approx 16000.

As of April we wont be able to claim working TC as DH has only got a 20 hour contract that his employers refuse to increase even though they are employing new staff offering 6 hr contracts

I have googled everywhere and cant find anything on the new eligibilty for free school meals as of April 2012.

Does anyone know?

I havent seen anything in the papers either. Maybe they have missed this issue with everything else going on or i have missed a previous thread on Mnet! Apologies if i have.

TIA

Could you not find 4 hours work? Maybe self employed cleaner/ironer/pub shifts?

Theres nearly two months before the change, if his employers dont want to increase his current contract then he could move full time elsewhere or take on a second part time job. In a couple you can share the min 24 hours needed as long as one adult does at least 16.

I've tried the pub work thing but they all work on rolling rotas with earlys till midnight which i cant do, as for cleaning i applied for 2 jobs but didnt have enough experience using the machinery ie buffers compared to other applicants

I'm home with Ds who has CP and LD which certainly doesnt help availabilty as i run around to different appointments all week and am resricted.

Living very rurally is a pain aswell as very few business's locally. I need a 6am-8am job ideally but easier said than done hence why DH is desperate to up his hours since being laid off from his FT position.

We are trying to work out how bad things are going to get in April before it happens but nowhere inc entitled to has updated the calculators yet.

is there nothing self employed either your or DH could do - I think -but please check that it counts - so self employed cleaning in peoples houses, ironing service - could do that in evening, handy man - maybe baby sitting? advert in local newsagent maybe