Free school meals

weavedribbon

Once again picking the collective brains of MSE!

I have a friend who has mental health difficulties and autism. She has a son who is coming up 7 years old and is cared for by her mother and her grandmother. She is still very much involved in his life and pays for all of his uniform, school trips etc.

He's entitled to free school meals automatically currently due to being in year 2 but the school have now said he's no longer entitled to them based on his mother's income related benefits (he'll get them until September when they'll stop). She lives with her husband who is also disabled and they claim joint HB, council tax support and IR ESA, with SDP as they both receive PIP too. She also receives the child benefit for her son. Obviously they do not claim money for her son with their ESA as he doesn't live with them at their address.

I get that this might come down to opinion (no judgement please) and I personally don't know if he should be entitled to them or not. The school say not but I wondered if the fact she pays all his other school related expenses and also receives the child benefit would have any influence. Ultimately she is financially responsible for him and would be the one paying for the school meals. If he should be entitled I can help my friend with what evidence we could take to the council to explain the rather complex situation but I don't want to give her the wrong advice.

calcotti

I thought receipt of income based ESA by parents would automatically give entitlement to FSM. If mother gets the CB I would expect her to be treated as the primary carer for most benefit decision but I’m not sure for FSM.

I am unclear from your post if the local authority have based decision on grandparents income - perhaps because that is where child is registered for school purposes.

weavedribbon wrote: »

Obviously they do not claim money for her son with their ESA as he doesn't live with them at their address.

There is no additional money for children in ESA. It would be Child Tax Credits. They could still claim these because they have a SDP in their ESA.

tomtom256

See https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals

Especially this part - If your child is eligible for free school meals, they’ll remain eligible until they finish the phase of schooling (primary or secondary) they’re in on 31 March 2022.

It was some protection they put in because of UC.

calcotti

tomtom256 wrote: »

See https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals

Especially this part - If your child is eligible for free school meals, they’ll remain eligible until they finish the phase of schooling (primary or secondary) they’re in on 31 March 2022.

It was some protection they put in because of UC.

Surely this doesn’t apply to children who automatically get FSM because of their age otherwise all primary school children will end up getting FSM for the whole of their primary education. I think the FSM for years 1 and 2 is effectively separate from the FSM scheme for older pupils. Indeed those in years 1 and 2 are still encouraged to apply for eligibility because if they qualify under the low income rule the school gets extra money from government.

As always the meaning is not entirely clear!

There is full guidance here but I haven’t had time to read it https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/700139/Free_school_meals_guidance_Apr18.pdf

naturaljazz

• [FONT=&quot]Income Support[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Income-related Employment and Support Allowance[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]The Guarantee element of State Pension Credit[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Child Tax Credit, provided they are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual income of £16,190 or less[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Working Tax Credit 'run-on' - the payment someone may receive for a further four weeks after they stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Universal Credit - In England, if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get). If your child is currently eligible for free school meals, they’ll remain eligible until they finish the phase of schooling (primary or secondary) they’re in on 31 March 2022.[/FONT]

This is from Entitled To and is up to date, it will be the definitive answer to the question on FSM.

tomtom256

calcotti wrote: »

Surely this doesn’t apply to children who automatically qualify because of their age otherwise all primary school children will end up getting FSM for the whole of their primary education.

Also I read this as the qualifying date being whether you get FSM on 31 March 2022.

As always the meaning is not entirely clear!

No but being on ESA IR, this would automatically cover them, but they actually need to apply for free school meals and once awarded they would then have the protection until 2022.

naturaljazz

As the time is a while away, just ring up the local authority and say what you have said in the OP. They will tell you for sure whether the child can get FSM or not.

weavedribbon

I apologise for not coming back and thanking people. The strange thing is the arrangement in terms of where lives have been this way since before he went to school and the school have always known yet said he qualified on the basis of her benefits, hence asking for up to date evidence. They didn't assess the grandparents income and said it was because he was living with them but I suppose there's an implication there that there judging based on them financially supporting him.

Anyway the back of the letter gives details about where/when we can take it to the local library to discuss so we'll do that as it's easier then 2 of us trying to be on the phone to them. I also just wanted to clarify that my friend is fully aware and ok with me posting on here for advice, I should have said that in my opening post, apologies for not doing so. I'll update this thread once we've been to see them just in case it helps anyone else.