Free School Meals

See the link

here criteria for Free School Meals

The situation in Scotland is the same as England.

Thats also my understanding of the rules.

I double checked with my own local authority whose site says "
Current Location: Education
Am I entitled to free school meals?
To qualify for free school meals you must be in receipt of either INCOME SUPPORT, INCOME BASED JOB SEEKERS ALLOWANCE OR CHILD TAX CREDIT WITH NO WORKING TAX CREDIT AND AN ANNUAL INCOME OF BELOW £13,480."

It seems unfair that someone with an income below £13.480 without a WTC is entitled to FSM while a person with the same total income including a WTC isn't.

I sometimes wonder why I work to be honest. I'd be financially better off sitting on my bum at home and claiming everything going ::)

Hi,
my single mum friend is better off on CTC and WTC as she is able to keep all of her maintainance money.

If she were to go onto IS she wouldn't keep the maintainance money or only a small amount of it.

I'm sure i've seen Fran or Ted mention on here that you can have a better off calculation done, though i'm not sure if somewhere does it for you or you can work it out yourself.

SammyPops wrote:

I sometimes wonder why I work to be honest. I'd be financially better off sitting on my bum at home and claiming everything going ::)

I know im jumping in here rather late, but we have been working this one out lately as both hubby and I are unemployed at the mo. Im really sick of being on the dole and would like to work but theres no way I can afford to. Taking into account JSA, childs tax credit, free school meals, clothing grant for kids at school, housing benefit, council tax benefit not to mention free prescriptions and eye tests, we would need to bring in a yearly salary of £15000 AFTER tax and nat ins. And thats not counting the cost of travel to work and work clothes. Im not proud at all of the fact that everyone else who pays tax is paying to keep my family, but its the only way we can do it. My hubby was offered a job at 13000k and we worked it out and even with WFTC & CTC we were still much worse off :-(

As for the free school meals, it really isnt fair that people on a low income cant get them, only those on IS, JSA etc.

tk wrote:

well as one who you describe above i take offense! when you are genuinely claiming due to illness do you know what it is like to live on second hand hand me down furniture/plates/pots etc or wear second hand clothes? wonder if every knock at the door is someone from housing or ba wanting to see your bank statements or your kids savings books because they can whenever they want? and to cry out of embarassment because your kids have a grand total of £46 saved after ten years? its great fun sitting on your bum every day with no prospects or nothing to look forward to other than day in day out poverty, but at least knowing your kids get one decent meal a day at school, that some people object to them getting?? if i could work i would be grateful!

I think what Sammypops was trying to say is that she (he?) would actually be BETTER off not working, so all the things you cannot do and are frustrated with would apply to Sammypops too. How frustrating must it be to be working and STILL not be able to afford some of the basics?

NB. In most Jobcentre Plus offices now there are Specialist Incapacity Benefit Advisers who are there to help people on incapacity benefits. You might want to give them a try - don't write yourself off even if your doctor has?