ESA and free school meals

I sent the following email to our free school meals dept as ESA stoppage has affected our free school meal eligibility, does any one have any experience of dealing with such an issue? I apologise if this duplicates a thread, I have looked but am not the best with techno stuff...

We had applied for free school meals as we were receiving ESA. This has been temporarily stopped due to a medical form being delayed. We expect to have this reinstated and backdated but have no guarantee of that. In the meantime the free school meals application has been made not eligible. What do we do? We do not have money and this stop in our benefit was unexpected, I have handed in forms for next term as free school meals and I fully believe that this will apply in September. What about this week?

Thank you for any help or advice

Free School meals is means tested.If you contact your local Council they will assist.

I hope 'means testing' is an option, as we do not appear to be eligible, even on ESA (if the claim gets sorted ). I am finding the whole system confusing I have sent yet another email, any further suggestions would be very welcome...


Thank you for your response, this still leaves me unsure what to do about September (we sent in an order without money). I was fully under the belief that we were entitled, but this does not appear to be the case. Is their no method of 'means testing' as we are now living on an incredibly low income, especially until the ESA and DLA claims are processed? What happens about any free school meals we may have accidently over claimed?

There is no method of ‘means testing’. The system that we use is run by the DWP. If your circumstances change by September please contact us again and we can do an up to date check.

robin wrote:

There is no method of ‘means testing’. The system that we use is run by the DWP. If your circumstances change by September please contact us again and we can do an up to date check.

start here and see what they say

local.direct.gov.uk/LDGRedirect/index.jsp?LGSL=4&LGIL=0

also read up here

www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/parents-carer...rs/free-school-meals

Free school meals
If you receive any of the benefits below, your child will be entitled to free school meals:

Income Support
Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
Employment and Support Allowance (Income Related)
Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
Child Tax Credit, provided they are not entitled to Working Tax Credit, and have an income, as assessed by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, that does not exceed £16,190 as at 6 April 2010 (subject to annual review). Parents who receive Working Tax Credit in addition to Child Tax Credit do not qualify for free school meals.
Guarantee element of State Pension Credit.