Apply for free school meals

Free School Meal eligibility

• Children of parents/carers who work might still be entitled to free school meals, dependent on income.
• If you claim Universal Credit and your work-related take home pay is less than £616.67 per month at the time of application, you are likely to be eligible for free school meals.
• There are two different types of Job Seekers Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance. These are income-based, and contribution-based. Only those in receipt of income-based Job Seekers Allowance are eligible for free school meals.
• Free school meal eligibility has been permanently extended to children in households with no recourse to public funds, subject to maximum income thresholds.
• If your child attends a local authority-maintained nursery and is receiving education either side of the lunch period, they might be eligible for free school meals.
• 16 to 18-year-olds in education can get free school meals (must be aged between 16 and 18 on 31 August to be eligible for a free meal in the following academic year). If they are attending a college, you can apply directly to the college.
• If your child is eligible for free school meals but the school hasn’t been providing a meal, you should contact the school to make sure your child is showing on their free school meal list. If your child is not on the free school meals list, please contact the free school meals team.

Application process

• Free school meals applications should be submitted to the local authority your child’s school is in, even if you live in another local authority.
• If your child has moved to a Warwickshire school from another local authority and was getting free school meals at their previous school, you need to reapply through Warwickshire County Council. Unfortunately, details are not automatically transferred between local authorities.
• Once the application is successful, your child will continue to receive free school meals unless parent/carer income changes.
• If your child is moving from primary to secondary school, you will need to reapply for free school meals.

Benefits and support

• Even if you don’t want to take the meals, making a claim will mean your child will get access to the holiday activities and food (HAF) programme and their school will get extra funding to support children.
• Benefits will not stop or be reduced if you apply for free school meals.

Food options

Sandwiches and cold food options are often available as well as hot food, check with your school to see what they offer.

Backdating

Free school meals cannot be backdated to cover the cost of unpaid dinner money, or to refund dinner money paid before the date of a successful application.