Payments for School Meals
All payments for school meals are made using the Arbor App, you will be able to see transactions and add to your child’s balance using a debit/credit card. A help article for the Arbor Parent Portal can be found here.
Free School Meals
Applications for free school meals should be filed with your own local council. The eligibility criteria listed below have been taken from the Department for Education’s guidance which can be found here.
“Free school meals are available to pupils in receipt of, or whose parents are in receipt of,
one or more of the following benefits:
- Universal Credit (provided you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400, as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods)
- 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 guarantee element of Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit (provided you’re 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”
There are additional provisions in place to provide free school means to families with no recourse to public funds (NRPF), the criteria below have been taken from the Department for Education’s guidance which can be found here.
“These groups include, but may not be limited to children of:
- Zambrano carers
- families who have no recourse to public funds with a right to remain in the UK on grounds of private and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights
- families receiving support under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 who are also subject to a no recourse to public funds restriction
- a subset of failed asylum seekers supported under Section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- Chen carers
- families holding a BN(O) passport
- spousal visa holders
- work visa holders
- student visa holders
- those with no immigration status
The maximum income threshold differs based on your location and the number of children that your family has.”
Your application may be completed online, through your local council’s website, or you may submit a paper application that can be collected from your local Revenues and Benefits Service building.
