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Free School Meals

Universal Infant Free School Meals

All pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2 in state-funded schools in England are eligible for 'Universal Infant Free School Meals' (UIFSM), irrespective of the income of their parent(s). Each school is responsible for providing this and they may ask you to fill in an application form to show that you require a meal for your child or children, so please discuss this with staff at your child's school.

In addition to UIFSM, if you do meet the criteria for claiming income related or asylum seeker free school meals, as outlined below, then please submit an online claim, so that your child’s school to receive additional Pupil Premium funding from the Government.

Register for free school meals to help out your school

If your child is eligible for free school meals, it's worth registering them even if they're not going to have the school lunch. This is because schools receive a 'pupil premium' - an extra payment for each eligible child which they can spend on useful services. Registering might also get you extra help for things like music lessons or school trips.

Free school meals are for children who:

  • live in the city of Salford (the area covered by Salford City Council); and
  • go to school (not a day nursery or children's centre)in Greater Manchester (Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford or Wigan)

If you live outside the city of Salford, but your child goes to a Salford school, complete the online form below.

Free meals are not usually available for children who go to independent (private) schools.

Who is entitled to free school meals:

  • registered pupils at primary and secondary free schools, academies and local authority maintained schools(including a sixth form centre attached to a maintained school); and
  • pupils attending maintained nurseries, as long as they are receiving education before and after lunch.

Who qualifies?

Your child may be able to get free school meals if you get any of the following:

  • Income Support
  • Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
  • Income-related employment and support allowance
  • The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
  • Universal Credit (not working)
  • Universal Credit (working and net earnings are less than £7,400 per year)*
  • Child Tax Credit, provided they are not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190
  • Where a parent is entitled to Working Tax Credit Run-on, paid for four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
  • If you get support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

* Please note: To be entitled to claim free school meals (FSM) when working and claiming Universal Credit, the earnings for one period should be no more than £616.67, earnings for the last two periods should be no more than £1,233.34, and the earnings for the last three periods should be no more than £1,850.00. Therefore if your earnings for one, two or three periods are below the upper earnings limits stated, you would be entitled to claim FSM. You will need to upload screen shots of each page of the relevant payment statement(s), especially the page(s) showing any deductions that are being made, with your online application, so we can then determine if you are entitled to claim free school meals. However, if your earnings for one period exceed £616.67, or if your earnings for two periods exceed £1,233.34, or if your earnings for three periods exceed £1,850.00, then you would not qualify to claim FSM.

Children who receive any of the above benefits in their own right (for example they get payments directly, instead of through a parent or guardian) can also get free school meals.

General FSM enquiries

If you have a general enquiry about free school meals please use our contact FSM form.

Apply in the following ways:

Apply online

We now have three online application forms available for parents:

If you are claiming any of the qualifying benefits listed above, please use this form:

Or if you are an asylum seeker please use this form:

Or if you have no recourse to public funds (NRPF), please use this form:

Nursery children working parents

You may be eligible to receive 30 hours free childcare if you are working parents. Please see the link below and check out the HM government website to see if you qualify.

You may be able to get 30 hours free childcare if:

  • you live in England
  • your child is 3 to 4 years old

How you can use 30 hours free childcare

You can get 30 hours of free childcare per week for 38 weeks of the year (during school term time).

Eligibility

Your eligibility depends on:

  • if you are working
  • your income (and your partner’s income, if you have one)
  • your child’s age and circumstances
  • your immigration status

https://www.gov.uk/apply-30-hours-free-childcare