Free School Meals - Benefits of receiving and eligibility criteria
Free School Meals - Academic year 2024-2025
We have completed our update work to award a Free School Meal for the academic year 2024-25 and letters have been sent out. If you have more than one child in your household, you may receive separate letters which could come through on different dates. If you have not received your notification for all of your children by 2 September 2024, please contact the Discretionary Grants and Awards Team (please see contact details at the bottom of the page) who will check our records. Please be mindful that during this period we are expecting to receive an increasing volume of calls and emails, and there may be a longer than usual wait time for your query to be answered.
Benefits of Free School Meals
Too many children in Coventry are living in food poverty, yet hundreds of children are still not receiving their entitlement to a Free School Meal. One in four children in Coventry is eligible for a Free School Meal. More are taking up their entitlement but there are so many more who could be benefiting.
The benefits of Free School Meals include:
- You could save more than £450 a year per child
- You save time making packed lunches
- Your child gets a healthy tasty, cooked meal
- Children achieve more when they’ve had a cooked lunch
- School gets extra funding to help children in their education (pupil premium- up to
£1480 a year per child)
Free School Meals eligibility
Types of eligibility:
- Universal Free School Meals - Reception, Year 1 & 2
- Free School Meals – Year 3 +
- Free School Meals – No recourse to public funds
Universal Free School Meals - Reception, Year 1 & 2
The government provides funding to government-funded schools to offer free school meals to pupils in reception, year 1, and year 2 (roughly aged 4-7 years)
You can apply as soon as your child's school place in Reception has been confirmed.
Free School Meals – Year 3 +
Your child will be able to get Free School Meals if you receive any of the following:
- Universal Credit (you are eligible after you have received your first payment) Your household earnings must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get))
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- The guaranteed element of Pension Credit
- Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
Any child who becomes eligible for Free School Meals between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2025 will remain entitled to a Free School Meal regardless of any change in parental income until they finish the phase of education they are in (primary or secondary) as of 31 March 2025.
Free School Meals – No recourse to public funds
Your child will be able to get Free School Meals if you fall into one of the following eligible groups
- Zambrano carers
- families who have no recourse to public funds with a right to remain in the UK on grounds of private and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights
- families receiving support under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 who are also subject to a no recourse to public funds restriction
- a subset of failed asylum seekers supported under Section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- Chen carers
- families holding a BN(O) passport
- spousal visa holders
- work visa holders
- student visa holders
- those with no immigration status
You will also need to evidence that your annual household income is below
- £22,700 for families with 1 child
- £26,300 for families with 2 or more children
In addition to these thresholds, families must hold no more than £16,000 in capital and savings.
Free School Meals
Telephone line is open 11am to 1pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays)
Address: Customer Service Centre3 Upper Precinct
Broadgate
Coventry
CV1 1FS
