Free school meals

Why apply for free school meals?

• If you are eligible for free school meals, you could be saving yourself a vast amount of money a year in the cost of school meals or packed lunches.
• School lunches are an excellent source of nutrition, and are now some of the healthiest provided to school children in the world.
• A regular cooked school lunch gives children the opportunity to eat and socialise together outside of lessons and they are more likely to try new foods if they see their friends eating them.
• The old fashioned stigma associated with free school meals is a thing of the past, with schools operating cashless canteens, so there is nothing to distinguish a child using free school meals from those whose parents and carers pay for lunches.

Applying for free school meals

Children in reception or years 1 to 6

Please refer to our Primary Free School Meals page: http://www.edmontoncounty.co.uk/primary/primary-information/primary-free-school-meals/

Children in year 7 or above

If your child is in year 3 or above, to be eligible for free school meals the parent or carer must receive one of the following benefits:

• Universal Credit with an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400 (£616.67 per month)
• Child Tax Credit only (with no Working Tax Credit)with an annual gross income of no more than £16,190.
  • Working Tax Credit is a disqualifying benefit regardless of your household income – this means that you would not be entitled to free school meals while in receipt of Working Tax Credit
• Working Tax Credit run-on (paid for the four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit)
• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Support under Part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• The guarantee element of Pension Credit

Children who get any of the above benefits directly, instead of through a parent or carer, can also apply for free school meals.

To apply, save the free school meals application form (PDF, 191.35 KB) to your device, fill in your details, and then email as an attachment to freeschoolmeals@enfield.gov.uk.

You don’t need to provide evidence of your benefit when you submit your form. However we may write to you for further information or to request certain evidence.