Free school meals

Nursery (pre-school)

If your child is at a maintained nursery school or class you can apply to claim free school meals if they attend for a full day and you get one of the qualifying benefits.

Pupils attending a private nursery are not entitled to free school meals.

Infants 

Your child will be able to get free school meals if they’re in reception class, year 1 or year 2. Ask the school for more information.

If you get any of the qualifying benefits your child’s school can get extra funding, called pupil premium, if you apply with us. 

Year 3 and above and secondary

Your child may be able to get free school meals if you get any of the qualifying benefits. Check whether you are eligible in section 2 and how to apply in section 3.

Menus

You can get information about the meals available from your child’s school. If Lancashire County Council provides the meals, you can view the menus and information.

Free milk

If you get benefits, your child could also get free milk. Contact your school to find out what arrangements they make for school milk.

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

• Universal Credit with a household income of less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

• Income-Based Jobseekers' Allowance

• Income-Related Employment and Support Allowance

• Child Tax Credit, not entitled to Working Tax Credit and household income less than £16,190

• Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

• Guarantee element of State Pension Credit

• Income Support

• Working Tax Credit 'run on' – the payment you receive for a further four weeks after you finish work

If your claim was approved on or before 31 March 2025, your child's eligibility for free school meals will be protected until they finish the phase of schooling (primary or secondary) they are in, even if your circumstances change.

If you have a younger child starting school in September and you are no longer eligible, they will not be protected because this would be a new claim.

Any claims approved after 1 April 2025, will not have transitional protection. Claims will be re-assessed on an annual basis.

Apply online

Please note you cannot use this form to apply for:

• children attending a private nursery - they are not entitled to free school meals

For all other applications:

Apply for free school meals and pupil premium >

What happens next

We will confirm whether you are eligible by email.

If you are eligible, we will let the school know that your child can have free school meals.

Schools differ in how they inform the dinner service who can get free school meals. Please contact your school if you have any questions.

Apply by post

Download the application form:

• Free school meals and pupil premium form (PDF 939 KB)

Please return completed forms to:

PO Box 100
Pupil Access Team
Lancashire County Council
County Hall
Fishergate Hill
Preston PR1 0LD

If you apply by post we will notify you by email, or post if you do not provide an email address.

New applications

If you have recently applied and have not received a confirmation email, please allow 5 working days before contacting us. Remember to also check your spam or junk email folder.

Changes to your circumstances

Contact us by email if:

• any of your personal details change

• you have changed address

• your child has changed schools

If your child is moving to another school in Lancashire, you do not need to reapply for free school meals. Just email us to let us know. We will tell the school if your child is eligible for free school meals.

If you are moving to Lancashire from another area you’ll need to make a new application. If your eligibility is protected but your circumstances have changed your your application may be refused. If this happens contact us to let us know and we will tell the new school and ensure your eligibility is protected.

Email

Free school meals email addresses by area:

Lancaster, Morecambe, Wyre and Fylde (North)

pupilaccessteam.north@lancashire.gov.uk

Preston, South Ribble, Chorley and West Lancashire (South)

fsm.south@lancashire.gov.uk

Hyndburn, Ribble Valley, Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale (East)

fsm.east@lancashire.gov.uk

The pupil premium provides extra funding to raise the achievement of some pupils. It is worth over £1000 per pupil for the school your child attends. Schools can also claim pupil premium funding for previously looked after children.

The GOV.UK website has information about how much pupil premium funding schools receive, how they should spend it and how they are held to account.

You can only apply to claim free school meals If your child attends a maintained nursery school or class. To be eligible they must attend for a full day and must you get one of the qualifying benefits.

Children attending a private nursery are not entitled to free school meals.

Maintained nursery schools or classes are nurseries or nursery classes in schools maintained by Lancashire County Council.

If you are not sure whether your child's nursery school or class is maintained or private, search our childcare directory. If it is maintained it will either say 'Maintained Nursery Class' or 'Maintained Nursery School' under the nursery name.

You can also ask your childcare provider if they are maintained or private.

Some young people over 16 can also get free school meals if they claim a benefit in their own right.

Qualifying benefits include:

• Income Support

• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance

• Employment and Support Allowance

If you go to a sixth form college or FE college, contact the college direct to claim your free meals.

If you already get free meals and your child is on work experience, you can claim for any lunches you have provided. Ask the school for details.

We use the government benefits database to check entitlement for free school meals.

If it shows that you are not entitled, you may need to provide further proof of your entitlement so that we can check your claim again.

You can do this by providing us with a copy of one of the following documents:

• Your most recent Universal Credit award notice (paper award notice or screenshot of last month's online statement). 

• The letter showing the breakdown of income support payment.

• The letter showing the breakdown of jobseekers allowance or Employment Support Allowance.

• Your complete TC602 Inland Revenue tax credit award notice for the current tax year.

• Your Pension Credit M1000 award notice.

• NASS support notice or IS96 document. You must include your NASS reference number, Port reference number and the name of authority providing support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum act 1999.

Children in households with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) are also eligible for free school meals. This is subject to a maximum income threshold and capital and savings limit for the family.

You can find more information in the free school meals guidance for schools and local authorities on GOV.UK.

Schools manage these applications. To apply, complete the application form and return it to the school:

• Application form for families with no recourse to public funds (DOCX 72KB)