Who can get free school meals
You can get free school meals if you are responsible for a child (for example, you receive Child Benefit for them) who is at school, including nursery children who attend full days at a school nursery and sixth form students, as long as you get one of these qualifying incomes:
- Income Support
- income-based Jobseekers Allowance
- income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Universal Credit (provided your household income is less than £7,400 a year after tax and not including any benefits you get)
- support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- the guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit (provided you are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
- Working Tax Credit run-on paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
If your income changes
if you receive free school meals and your income increases above the qualifying limits, you are eligible for transitional protection and your children will still receive free meals until the end of the school year 2025/26.
This protection only covers children included in the original claim. Any younger siblings who start school after your income exceeded the thresholds would not get free school meals. From the end of the school year 2025/26 the government will end this transitional protection for means-tested free school meals and entitlement will be based on meeting the eligibility criteria.
From the start of the 2026/27 school year, the government will introduce new eligibility criteria, meaning that all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit will be entitled to receive a free meal. The government have told us they will issue further guidance ahead of September 2026.
If you have a query about free school meals, you can email benefitsfsm@stockport.gov.uk.