Free School Meals - Print version

Free School Meals automatic enrolment

What is automatic enrolment for Free School Meals?

The Benefits Service administers awards of Free School Meals where customers have applied for one alongside their Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Support. However our data shows that over the years not all parents or carers with children entitled to a free school meal have applied for one, which means children are missing out.

If eligible children are automatically signed up for free school meals, no one will miss out. We are running a project to see how well this works. 

We are data matching information we already hold about families who get Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Support and determining whether there are children in the household who could be eligible for a free school meal but are not receiving one.

If we think your child may be eligible for free school meals and not getting them, we will write to you. 

I'm happy for my child to be automatically enrolled

The letter will explain that if your child is eligible we will automatically enrol (sign up) them up for free school meals. You do not need to do anything. We will process the application, notify the school, and send you a letter when it is done. 

I do not want my child to be automatically enrolled

Your letter will explain that you can opt out of the free school meal auto-enrolment process, and gives details of how you do this. You only need to contact us if you have received a letter from us. 

Frequently asked questions

• My child already gets free school meals. Why have I been sent a letter?

Children in Key Stage 1 (nursery to Year 2) automatically get free school meals. These are called 'universal infant free school meals'. All children get them, no matter which benefits their family gets. However, we would still like to sign up key stage 1 children so the school receives the correct funding.

For children in Key Stage 2 onwards (Year 3 and above) entitlement to free school meals is related to your income. Children can only get them if their family is getting certain benefits. When a child is getting income-related free school meals, their school can get extra money to help support that child. We'd like to sign your child up for income-related free school meals.

• How does this help my child?

Your child can get a healthy, hot meal at school every day if you wish. It can also save you over £400 per year per child on the cost of lunches.

Schools get extra money from the government for every child entitled to free school meals. This money can help support your child's education.

• What if I'd rather give my child a packed lunch?

Your child does not have to have a school meal if you do not want them to. But we would ask that your child is signed up for free school meals anyway, so their school gets extra money from the government to support them.

• What will you do with my data?

We use personal data to check and decide on applications for Free School Meals. We also use data we already have in relation to Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Support to check if families of pupils, who have not already applied, could be missing out on Free School Meals. If parents or carers do not object to the automatic enrolment of the pupil, we will do this for them. 

We will use your surname, National Insurance number and your date of birth so that we can check if you qualify for free school meals. When we use your information, the government’s electronic free school meals checking service gives us a simple reply – YES or NO. This is how we check to see if you qualify for free school meals 

We use this data to help us deliver our ‘public tasks’. The laws that allow us to handle these applications and to enrol pupils in Free School Meals include the Education Act 1996 and Localism Act 2011.

Your data is kept securely and we have to follow very strict procedures about how we look after your personal information under UK data protection law. 

Free School Meals - Benefits of receiving and eligibility criteria

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 [#ReceptionYear1Year2]
• Free School Meals – Year 3 + [#Year3+]
• Free School Meals – No recourse to public funds [#NRPF]

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Universal Free School Meals - Reception, Year 1 & 2

The government provides funding to government-funded schools [https://www.gov.uk/types-of-school] 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 [https://www.gov.uk/british-national-overseas-bno-visa]
• 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.

Apply for Free School Meals

Apply for free school meals only

To apply for Universal or Year 3+ free school meals all applications are made online using our free school meals application form.

Whilst completing the form you will need to include the following

• National insurance number
• Correctly select the benefit you are receiving
• Include all children you are making an application for (One application per household)

Make an application for free school meals [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/applyforfreeschoolmeals]

Apply for free school meals, Housing Benefits / Council Tax Support under one application

You can:

Claim for Housing Benefit or Council Tax support and apply for Free School Meals at the same time

Whilst completing the form you will need to include the following

• National Insurance number
• Correctly select the benefit you are receiving
• Include all children you are making an application for (One application per Household)
• Please ensure you have completed all the relevant information on your application form as this may delay your application from being processed.

Apply for Free School Meals for a No Recourse to Public Funds household

The application process for No Recourse to public funds households is different from the one outlined above.

You will be required to provide a self-declaration to your child's school. 

Please use the sample application form [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/downloads/download/7518/sample-application-for-free-school-meals-no-recourse-to-public-funds] which can be completed and provided to your child’s school. If you require assistance completing your application your child’s school can support, you with this.

As part of the application process, you will need to be able to provide evidence of your No recourse to public funds status and your household income [http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools-and-local-authorities/providing-free-school-meals-to-families-with-no-recourse-to-public-funds-nrpf#confirming-nrpf-status].

Notification of the Free School Meal entitlement

Once the application has been assessed the Local Authority will notify the household in writing or by email. 

School notifications for Free School Meals entitlement

We will tell the school(s) that your child/children are entitled to a free school meal.

Your school has access to an online portal where they can view free school meal eligibility data which is shared by Coventry City Council.

How to report a change in circumstance

We have introduced a new Free School Meal Change of Circumstances form which will be used by Parents/Guardians and schools to report a change. This new form will ensure any reported change is captured and we have a record of this to meet our audit requirements.

If you are a parent or guardian, you may need to report one of the following changes:

• If you move address
• If your child changes school
• If your child moves address, and is no longer living with you

If you need to report more than one child’s change of circumstance, you will need to complete separate forms for each child.

Tell us about a change in circumstances [https://myaccount.coventry.gov.uk/service/Free_School_Meals___Change_of_Circumstances]

Failure to report a change may result in the Free School Meals being stopped or you may not receive the additional support provided through the Coventry Holiday Activity and Food Programme. If you are unsure if the change of circumstances needs to be reported, please contact the Discretionary Grants & Awards team.

If you contact our Discretionary Grants & Awards by phone or by email wishing to report a change you will be signposted to the Change of Circumstances form. If you do not have access to a computer or a smartphone, please contact your child’s school or visit your local library.

Information for schools

How to process a Free School Meal application for a No Recourse to Public Funds household

As explained on our Apply for a Free School Meal [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/benefits-1/free-school-meals/2] page, schools will be given a self-declaration and supporting evidence from the families requesting Free School Meals.

You should record eligible Free School Meals pupils who qualify through the NRPF criteria in the termly school census, in the same way as all other Free School Meals pupils.

You should retain evidence of the application including the self-declaration and any supporting documentation for usual audit purposes.

Further information and confirmation of support evidence from GOV.UK [http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools-and-local-authorities/providing-free-school-meals-to-families-with-no-recourse-to-public-funds-nrpf#confirming-nrpf-status].

How to report a change of circumstances by the school

If you are a reporting a change and you work in a school, you will need the following information.

• The child’s first name & surname
• The child’s date of birth
• The Housing Benefit reference. This reference starts with a 5 or 6 and is 9 characters long.

This information can be located on your school’s free school meal portal and must be entered accurately. If we are unable to trace the child, we may contact the person who completed the form to request additional information before the change of circumstances can be actioned. Please make sure your email address is included in the school’s details page to prevent any additional delays with confirming information.

You can only include one child per change of circumstances form. If you need to complete multiple changes this will require multiple applications submitting.

Tell us about a change in circumstances [https://myaccount.coventry.gov.uk/service/Free_School_Meals___Change_of_Circumstances]

We have shared this information with all schools by email. To ensure we protect data and have an audit record of the reported change we will no longer be accepting emails with spreadsheets attached.

What if I am a school that needs to query a pupil's entitlement

All schools have access to an online portal where they can confirm Free School Meal entitlement.

If you are having technical difficulties accessing the portal please contact the team who will forward your request to our Systems team to investigate. 

If you have a query that cannot be answered through the portal, please contact us.

Free School Meals privacy notice

What we do

Free School Meals are a statutory benefit available to school-aged children from families who receive certain qualifying benefits. Younger children may also be eligible for Free School Meals if they attend a local authority nursery school or nursery class and attend full days. Coventry City Council Benefits Service administers the award of Free School Meals for eligible children in Coventry on behalf of the Government.  

What personal data do we collect and how do we use it? 

We need to collect your personal data in order to assess entitlement to Free School Meals. This data may include:

• Your contact details (name, address, telephone number and email address)
• Details about you (date of birth, national insurance number)
• Details about your child (name, date of birth, school)

If you have completed an application for Free School Meals, or have indicated on a claim for Housing Benefit and / or Council Tax Support that you wish us to assess you for one, you provide this information to us directly. 

We also carry out a data matching exercise each year to identify children who might be entitled to Free School Meals. Further information about this can be found here [https://www.coventry.gov.uk/benefits-1/free-school-meals]

We use your personal data to:

• Check whether your child is eligible for Free School Meals 
• Notify your child’s school of their entitlement to Free School Meals 
• Provide food vouchers to support families during the school holidays 
• Deal with any complaints or concerns 
• Detect fraud and protect public funds

How the law allows us to use your personal data

The Council has a legal obligation to deliver our ‘public tasks’, one of which is to provide Free School Meals to eligible children in Coventry. The laws that allow us to handle these applications and to enrol pupils in Free School Meals are the Education Act 1996 and Localism Act 2011.

We need to have a lawful basis to process personal data under data protection law. Our lawful bases are:

• Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation (Article 6(c) of UK GDPR) 

• Processing is necessary for performance of a task carried out in the public interest (Article 6(1)(e) of UK GDPR) 

 Who we share your information with 

We will share information with: 

• Your child’s school or early years provider to let them know that your child has been awarded a Free School Meal 

• The Department for Education’s Free School Meals checking service

How do we keep your personal data secure?

We use the following measures to ensure that your personal data is secure:

• data protection and security policies,
• information security incident reporting, data and device encryption,
• system and data access controls,
• user accounts and passwords,
• physical and environmental security,
• staff vetting practices,
• staff training and awareness,
• data back-ups,
• ICT network penetration testing, and
• business continuity and disaster recovery plans.

How long will we keep your personal data?

We only keep your data for as long as the Law requires it, and this is in line with the Council's retention schedule.

Your rights

Your Information rights are set out under Data Protection Law and, subject to some exceptions, you have the:

• Right to rectification - to ask for information to be corrected
• Right to erasure - to have your personal data deleted
• Right to object - to how your data is used
• Right to restriction - to request limits on how your data is used
• Right to portability - to request that we move your data to another organisation
• Right of subject access

If you have any concerns or questions about how we look after your personal information, please contact our Data Protection Officer, at DPOTeam@coventry.gov.uk [mailto:DPOTeam@coventry.gov.uk].