Free school meals

Lachk · 18 April 2018 at 9:24AM

The new rules for free school lunches, does anybody have a more indepth understanding to explain things for me please.

My partner and I are currently in receipt of Child Tax Credits and Working Tax Credits, this years income for the family was roughly £14k before any additional help so we were not entitled to help with school meals.

This year (April 18 - April 19) our income is due to fall to £7k before help.

With the new legislation if we were in receipt of Universal Credit we would receive free school meals, as we are still on Child and Working Tax Credits not Universal Credit does this mean we are not entitled to free school meals, yet if we were on Universal Credit we would be?

I have read the new legislation, but it all relates to Universal Credit, I can see no mention of WTC.

With 2 children in full time education, both growing teenage boys, the food bills are painful, free school meals would be a massive help but I still appear to miss the criteria for help.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks in advance.

poppy12345 · 18 April 2018 at 10:41AM

Lachk wrote: »

The new rules for free school lunches, does anybody have a more indepth understanding to explain things for me please.

My partner and I are currently in receipt of Child Tax Credits and Working Tax Credits, this years income for the family was roughly £14k before any additional help so we were not entitled to help with school meals.

This year (April 18 - April 19) our income is due to fall to £7k before help.

With the new legislation if we were in receipt of Universal Credit we would receive free school meals, as we are still on Child and Working Tax Credits not Universal Credit does this mean we are not entitled to free school meals, yet if we were on Universal Credit we would be?

I have read the new legislation, but it all relates to Universal Credit, I can see no mention of WTC.

With 2 children in full time education, both growing teenage boys, the food bills are painful, free school meals would be a massive help but I still appear to miss the criteria for help.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks in advance.

Claiming WTC doesn't qualify you for free school meals, even with low income. See here. https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/free-school-meals

sheramber · 18 April 2018 at 10:46AM

You were only entitled to free school meals if you were in receipt of child tax credit but not entitled to working tax credit.

You can check here if you are entitled to them
https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals

Lachk · 18 April 2018 at 10:55AM

Thanks for your replies. That's what I thought, so because Universal Credit hasn't rolled out fully we won't be eligible. But does this still stand under the new legislation?

If we had just started a claim we would be put on Universal Credit not CTC/WTC and would therefore be able to claim free school meals and when the roll out of UC is completed we would be eligible.

Seems a little unbalanced, my next door neighbours circumstances could change tomorrow, they could be in exactly the same situation as us financially and because they claim today they would get UC and free school meals.

Darksparkle · 18 April 2018 at 11:13AM

Do you work the required number of hours to claim WTC if the household income is only £7,000?

Lachk · 18 April 2018 at 12:00PM

What has that got to do with the question I asked?

My WTC/CTC claim is fine thank you for your concern. I was just asking if anyone knew more about the latest legislation and the change in guidelines.

unforeseen · 18 April 2018 at 12:37PM

£7000 pa says you don't qualify for WTC as a couple, based on NMW.

Darksparkle · 18 April 2018 at 12:43PM

unforeseen wrote: »

£7000 pa says you don't qualify for WTC as a couple, based on NMW.

Exactly why I asked. If the hours have reduced below the qualifying level for WTC then WTC should be stopped and OP would then qualify for free school meals.

The changes relate to UC, you don't claim UC so they don't impact on you unless you choose to move to UC.

Lachk · 18 April 2018 at 12:57PM

S/E do not have to earn NMW, as I said, my WTC/CTC claim is not the issue here.

As for the response to my question, thank you. You are correct UC would receive school meals, WTC doesn't. The changes are just relating to UC. I have just spoken to my local council who have clarified the matter for me.

Darksparkle · 18 April 2018 at 1:03PM

Lachk wrote: »

S/E do not have to earn NMW, as I said, my WTC/CTC claim is not the issue here.

As for the response to my question, thank you. You are correct UC would receive school meals, WTC doesn't. The changes are just relating to UC. I have just spoken to my local council who have clarified the matter for me.

It was a simple question, you never mentioned self employment in your OP.

If you are not already aware, tax credits are likely to question the validity of the self employment if less than hours x nmw.

https://www.gov.uk/working-tax-credit/eligibility

"If the average hourly profit from your self-employed work is less than the National Minimum Wage, the Tax Credit Office may ask you to provide:

business records
your business plan - find out how to write a business plan
details of the day-to-day running of your business
evidence that you’ve promoted your business - such as advertisements or flyers"

Lachk · 18 April 2018 at 1:36PM

Yes I didn't mention it because the reasons behind the changes were not important, just that they would change.

Just to clarify, my partner is starting S/E and will be working 16 hours per week, I am due to start in full time education so our household income will reduce. They will be earning roughly £7k, our WTC/CTC entitlement will change as there will no longer be a full time element and the income will reduce, so this will have an impact on the amounts we will receive.

Working off rough estimates from WTC we will cope, but free school meals would have been very useful, hence why I was curious about the changes, which will not affect our situation so c'est la vie.

Free school meals

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