School meals
Find out where hot lunches are on offer and if your child is eligible for free school dinners.
If you are on a qualifying benefit and do not already receive Free School Meals (FSM), we urge you to make a formal application as soon as possible. This can benefit your child's school as they can claim extra funding (Pupil Premium).
Currently, Oxfordshire are providing vouchers to families during the school holidays if you are eligible.
Who is eligible for free school meals?
Free school meals are available to children whose parents or carers are in receipt of any of the following benefits:
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker's allowance
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The guaranteed element of Pension Credit
- Child tax credit (provided you are not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
- Working tax credit run-on - paid for four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
- Universal Credit - if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your additional net earned household income must be less then £7,400 a year approximately £616 per month (after tax and not including any benefits you get)
We are not allowed to recognise any other benefit other than those mentioned above.
My child receives Universal Free School Meals (UIFSM). Can they still be eligible for free school meals?
All children in Reception, Year 1 or Year 2 can receive school meals at no cost to you, this is the universal infant free school meal entitlement.
Any child who attends school for at least one full day a week and whose parents match the eligibility criteria, can receive benefits-related free school meals. A child in Key Stage 1 who is eligible will then be protected (under transitional protection) and will continue to receive free school meals even when they are no longer eligible for UIFSM i.e. when they move to Year 3.
Are nursery pupils eligible for benefits-related free school meals?
Where a child attends a maintained nursery (including academies), for at least one full day a week (before and after the lunch break) and their parents are in receipt of a qualifying benefit then the child is eligible for benefits-related free school meals. If your child is at a maintained nursery school or class, you can apply to claim free school meals provided they attend for a full day, and you are in receipt of one of the qualifying benefits
When should I apply?
You should apply to your school when you first start to receive benefit as claims are not backdated. This will be reviewed annually.
You should notify your child’s school immediately if any changes occur to your benefits.
How do I apply?
Where your child is enrolled at a school, the responsibility for determining entitlement is with them.
You should ask your child's school for an application form that you can complete and return to the school for an assessment. They may ask you to provide evidence.
Where your child is not on the roll of a school, or the school or setting they attend is not able to provide a meal, you should contact us for further information.
Why should I apply?
When a claim has been made on your child’s behalf and their eligibility, or protected status, has been verified they will be provided with a healthy and nutritious meal in school at no cost to you.
Children who are entitled to free school meals may also benefit from
- additional support such as help with home-to-school transport
- food vouchers during the school holidays
- access to the Holidays and Activities Food Programme (HAF)
In addition, the school can claim the Pupil Premium funding from the Department of Education
- £1,345 per child for those attending a primary school
- £955 per child for those attending a secondary school
Government funding is provided even if your child does not want the meal and is used to help children from lower income families achieve their very best at school.
Transitional Protections
Transitional Protection (TP) for free school meals was introduced in 2018 to help families avoid losing their entitlement while Universal Credit was being rolled out. This ensured they continued receiving free school meals even if their household income increased above the threshold. This was originally set until March 2022 and was subsequently extended to March 2025, when Universal Credit rollout is expected to be completed.
How it works?
A child who was eligible on 1 April 2018 or has become eligible under the benefits related earnings criteria since then, will continue to receive free school meals even if their household income exceeds the eligibility threshold up until the end of March 2025, and then until the end of their current phase of education.
Transitional protections ended on 31 March – what does this mean?
From 1 April 2025, the transitional protection arrangements will end.
This means that a child confirmed as eligible for free school meals after this date will no longer be protected and will be subject to ongoing checks to confirm continued eligibility.
However, this will not impact any children who were confirmed as eligible before 1 April 2025. Those children will maintain their eligibility until the end of their current phase of education (see table below). At that point, they will be re-assessed for their eligibility status. This will apply to children transferring from primary to secondary education (Year 6 into Year 7) and those moving from secondary to sixth form (Year 11 to Year 12). These children will then be subject to ongoing checks to confirm continued eligibility.
| School Year as at 31 March 2025 | Eligible between 1 April 18 and 31 March 2025 | Eligible from 1 April 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Nursery | Year 6 | All new applications assessed on or after 1.4.25 will be reviewed at the end of the Summer Term 2025. If still eligible for FSM application will be renewed for new academic year. Eligibility Checks will take place throughout the academic year - timescales to be confirmed. |
| Year 1 | Year 6 | |
| Year 2 | Year 6 | |
| Year 3 | Year 6 | |
| Year 4 | Year 6 | |
| Year 5 | Year 6 | |
| Year 6 | Year 6 | |
| Year 7 | Year 11 | |
| Year 8 | Year 11 | |
| Year 9 | Year 11 | |
| Year 10 | Year 11 | |
| Year 11 | Year 11 | |
| Year 12 | Year 13 | |
| Year 13 | Year 13 |
My child became eligible for free school meals after 1 April 2025 – what does this mean?
Children who become eligible for free school meals for the first time 1 April 2025 will need to be reviewed at the end of the summer term to check if they would still qualify.
If one of my children is eligible for free school meals with ‘Transitional Protection’, does this mean that all of my children are automatically eligible?
Transitional protection is applied to an individual child and not on a family basis. This means that pupils will not automatically become entitled to free school meals simply because their sibling receives the ‘Transitional Protection’. The new child must meet the eligibility criteria at the time the application for free school meals is made to be entitled to free school meals.
For example, a family has three children, Child A, who is in Year 6, Child B, who is in Reception and Child C, who is in Year 8
- Child A has been receiving free school meals at primary school and is starting secondary school in September 2025. As they are leaving primary school they will need to have their eligibility rechecked. If there has been a change in their circumstances and they no longer qualify for free school meals, they will need to pay for school meals for Child A when they start secondary school in September.
- Their younger sibling, Child B, started in Reception in September 2024. When they joined the school, their eligibility was checked, and they were entitled to free school meals. Child B will remain eligible for free school meals until they leave primary school, even though current family circumstances mean that their sibling, Child A, will no longer receive free school meals when they start secondary school.
- Child C attends Secondary School. They started at the school in September 2023 and was previously eligible for free school meals at primary school. Under transitional protection they will remain eligible for free school meals until they leave secondary school (end of year 11), even though current family circumstances mean that their sibling Child A, will no longer receive free school meals when they are at secondary school.
When should schools request eligibility checks?
Those children whose eligibility was checked and confirmed between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2025 are protected and do not require a recheck until they start a new phase of education.
Requests for eligibility checks for children moving from Year 6 to Year 7 and from Y11 to Year 12 can be submitted during June. These will be processed during July and August.
For those children starting primary school in September, schools can submit requests from 1 September.
These requests must be submitted as a batch file. No other documentation will be accepted.
From 1 June until 31 August, no other eligibility rechecks will be accepted.
There are some cases where a request can be submitted during this time as an exception. These would be where a child is new to the school and there is no data from their previous school to show that checks have been completed, or the family is newly eligible for one of the qualifying benefits. These can be sent it at all times, however, the exception must be indicated in the subject line of the individual request.