Free school meals (FSM)
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From improved concentration and academic performance to better behaviour, a regular, balanced meal can help your child's education. Find out if your child is entitled to FSM, and how to apply.
Children who attend a Luton school and whose parents or carers receive certain benefits, may be entitled to free school meals.
If you are eligible to claim free school meals your application will trigger extra government funding for your child’s school called the Pupil Premium. This added funding can help fund valuable support including extra tuition, support staff or providing after school activities.
Who is eligible
Free school meals are available to pupils in receipt of, or whose parents or carers are in receipt of, one or more of the following benefits:
- Universal Credit – from 1 April 2018 provided you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Support under Part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The guaranteed element of Pension Credit
- 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)
- Working Tax Credit run-on – (the payment someone receives for a further four weeks after they stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit)
If your child attends a school or Luton Sixth Form College after the age of 16, they will still be able to have FSM up to the age of 19 (provided you are still eligible).
How to apply
You can apply for free school meals online.
If you have documents to support your FSM meals application please complete the FSM - Documents to support your application form.
Note:if your child attends the following schools, you must contact them directly to apply for free school meals.
- Someries Infant or Junior School
- St Matthews Primary
- Surrey Street Primary
- Luton Sixth Form College
Supermarket vouchers during school holidays
Funding has been secured under the Household Support Fund provided by the DWP to provide vulnerable households peace of mind. The funding will help families and their children to be well fed in the school holidays. Find out more about the School Holiday Meals voucher scheme.
Holiday activities and food (HAF)
All children on free school meals qualify for free places on Energise Luton holiday activity and food camps.
There are a huge range of holiday camps across the town to cater for different, ages, abilities and interests and every camp includes a nutritious lunch each day. Camps run for one week at Easter and Christmas and for four weeks during the summer holidays.
Find out more and book a place at a Luton holiday camp - you'll need to enter a ‘FSM code’ when booking. Please contact the school who will be able to provide this to you.
All infants in reception, year 1 or year 2 are entitled to FSM, regardless of the parent/guardians circumstances. This scheme is referred to as universal infant FSM (UIFSM).
Parents meeting the standard FSM criteria are still strongly encouraged to apply as the government gives schools additional funding ('pupil premium') for every pupil who successfully registers for FSM.
From 1 April 2018, all existing FSM pupils will continue to receive FSM whilst Universal Credit is rolled out. This applies even if they no longer meet the eligibility criteria during that time. This protection will continue until March 2025.
Transitional protections are put in place on an individual child basis, not on a family basis. This means that younger children will not automatically become entitled to FSM simply because their older sibling is in receipt of transitional protections.
Families in receipt of FSM under the No Recourse Public Funds criteria are not transitionally protected.
FSM can be considered for children who attend nursery before and after lunch. The child should be accessing early education during a period that includes the lunch period.
For FSM eligibility queries please contact your child’s nursery directly.
How to apply
We aim to assess your claim within 5 to 10 working days. On your claim form please provide all current contact information as we may need to contact you for further information regarding your claim.
Please make sure you have the following details before making a claim:
- national insurance number
- details of the school your child attends
- claimants and the child’s personal information
- list of benefits you receive
The rules have been permanently extended FSM eligibility to children in all households with no recourse to public funds (NRPF), subject to maximum income thresholds.
Eligible groups
These groups include, but may not be limited to children of:
- Zambrano carer
- 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
The maximum income threshold differs based on your location and the number of children that your family has.
Income thresholds
Under the permanent extension of FSM eligibility to all NRPF groups, the annual household income thresholds for those families able to work are:
- £22,700 for families outside of London with 1 child
- £26,300 for families outside of London with 2 or more children
- £31,200 for families within London with 1 child
- £34,800 for families within London with 2 or more children
For more information on these rules visit the Providing FSM to families with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) page.
If we have informed you that your child or children are not entitled to FSM and you believe this decision is wrong, please provide evidence which confirms your entitlement within one month from the date of our notification letter.
This should be in the form of a full benefit award letter from Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) or HMRC or documentary evidence from the Home Office.
For example, your latest Child Tax Credit award letter showing all pages for the current year. Please note documents and letters older than three months are not acceptable.
We can then review your child’s or children’s entitlement to FSM.
Please complete the form below to report changes in circumstances for those with existing FSM entitlement (for example a change in school or change of address)
We've looked at the benefits information we hold and found that some households that may meet the criteria for FSM but haven't yet made an application.
We want to increase the Pupil Premium funding for all academies and locally maintained schools in Luton, so we'll be using the data that we already have to automatically award FSM during September.
Those families who appear to qualify for FSM but haven’t applied yet will be contacted by letter to explain how the automatic award works.
Read this information sheet that gives more background to the scheme to help you if you receive a letter.
If you require any further information about school meals, please complete the form below.
1.1 MB
Tel: 01582 510346