Free School Meals

School meals are:

• Nutritionally balanced to ensure they are low in fat, sugar and salt and high in vitamins and minerals – healthier than many packed lunches
• Helping your child to concentrate throughout the day – a hot meal at lunch-time provides energy – as well as encouraging them to try new foods
• Produced to a high quality using locally produced ingredients
• Helping your child to learn the social skills that eating and interacting with others brings
• Great value for money – £2.10 for a primary school meal

Free School Meals

Under the Government’s Universal Infant Free School Meals Initiative, all pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 can now receive a free school lunch.

School meals are free for your child or children if you receive

• Income Support.
• Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
• An income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Child Tax Credit and have an annual income of £16,190 or less (but not if you are in work and receive Working Tax Credit)
• The guarantee element of State Pension Credit
• Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• Universal Credit, provided you have an annual net earned income not exceeding £7,400 (£616.67 a month)

How to Apply

If you submit a claim for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction and you are in receipt of one of the qualifying incomes listed above, you will automatically be assessed your entitlement to Free School Meals (FSM). This is completed at the point that your entitlement to Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Reduction is assessed. There is no need for you to apply separately for FSM.

If you are in receipt of Universal Credit and have an annual net earned income not exceeding £7,400, you should go online to apply for your child’s free school meals.

If you are a Liverpool resident, please visit the Liverpool.gov website to apply online.