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There are two types of Free School Meals:
- Income based free school meals
- Universal free school meals
To qualify for free school meals a parent must:
- Have a child attending a Sheffield school or maintained nursery, accessing education.
- Have a school aged child or nursery age child, attending before and after lunch sessions at a nursery school or Local Authority maintained nursery.
- receive any of the following qualifying benefits:
Qualifying Benefits
- Universal Credit (provided they have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400, as assessed by earnings from up to three of their most recent assessment periods)
- Income Support
- Income based Jobseekers Allowance
- Income related Employment Support Allowance
- Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit – with a yearly household income of less than £16,190 (as assessed by HM Revenue and Customs) and do not get Tax Credit
- Working Tax Credit run on (paid for 4 weeks after someone stops qualifying for Working Tax Credit)
Children who get any of the above benefits in their own right (i.e. they get benefits paid directly, instead of through a parent or guardian) can also get free school meals.
Universal Free School Meals
If a child attends a state funded infant school and is in Reception/Key Stage 1, they are entitled to ‘universal infant free school meals’ regardless of their parent/carer’s income.
Please click on the link below for more information.