Free School Meals Eligibility and Pupil Premium Funding

 

We want to make sure that we are providing your child with the best education and support we can. Healthy School food can help pupils establish healthy habits for life and help to improve pupils’ readiness to learn.

Currently children in Nursery, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 who have a school meal either have to pay for the school meal or if parents are in receipt of certain benefits and are registered with Wakefield Council for Free School Meals then a meal is provided free of charge to the child paid for by the school.

Children in Upper Foundation Stage, Year 1 and Year 2 currently are provided with a daily school meal at no cost through the governments Universal Free School Meal offer.

Changes were made to Free School Meals from the start of September 2026. From this date all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit are entitled to receive free school meals. This means that, even if you have recently applied and your claim has been denied, you may now qualify. If either parent receives Universal Credit, regardless of any other household income, please can we ask that you re-apply as soon as possible.  You could also raise additional pupil premium funding for School to fund support like extra tuition, additional teaching staff or after school activities.

Even if your child is in Upper Foundation Stage, Year 1 and Year 2 and you are in receipt of Universal Credit we urge you to apply for the free school meal benefit as this will offset the cost of the meal that has to be paid for out of the school budget.

Please visit https://www.wakefield.gov.uk/schools-and-education/schools/free-school-meals for more information and follow the link to apply online.

 

If you have any queries, please contact the Free School Meals Team

Telephone – 01924 305061

Email – fsm@wakefield.gov.uk

Information from Wakefield Council Website

Changes from September 2026

Free school meals are changing from 1 September 2026.

Until now, children who became eligible from April 2018 kept their free school meals. This continued even if their family’s circumstances changed. This protection will end on 31 August 2026.

From September 2026:

• there will be an annual eligibility check

• some families may become eligible who were not before

• others may need to reapply

Who can get free school meals

To be eligible, your child must attend a Wakefield school. This can be a primary or secondary school (Nursery to Year 11), or a Wakefield maintained nursery school*.

You may then qualify in one of the ways below.

Targeted free school meal

Your child will get free school meals and extra help for their school if you receive:

• Universal Credit and your household income is £7,400 a year or less

• income-related Employment and Support Allowance

• the guarantee element of Pension Credit

• support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

• support as a family with no recourse to public funds (NRPF)

This is called targeted free school meals.

This also means your child’s school gets extra funding (Pupil Premium). And you may qualify for other support like the Holiday Activities and Food programme.

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Expanded free school meals

Your child may get free meals only if:

• you receive Universal Credit

• your household income is above £7,400 a year

This is called expanded free school meals