Coronavirus: Who is eligible for free school meal vouchers and are they continuing over summer?

Over the Easter break, children eligible for free school meals continued to receive supermarket vouchers.

On the government’s website, it explains that for schools who cannot provide meals for students or food parcels for children who are remaining at home, “you can continue to offer vouchers to families of eligible pupils”.

The national voucher scheme previously stipulated that it would not continue throughout the summer holidays, despite the significant financial impact many families have experienced throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

On Monday footballer Marcus Rashford, 22, who represents Manchester United and the England national team, wrote an emotional letter to MPs recalling his own experience of relying on free school meals as a child and implored the government to make a “U-turn”.

While Boris Johnson initially rejected Rashford’s plea, on Tuesday 16 June the government announced it had changed its mind, with all pupils in England who qualify being offered supermarket food vouchers to cover the six-week summer holiday.

It is estimated that around 1.3 million children in England are entitled to free meals, and up until the policy was put in place, schools were responsible for making their own arrangements for these children.

Announcing the move in March, education secretary Gavin Williamson, said: “Our school leaders and teachers are central to the country’s response to these unprecedented challenges, and I want to thank them for their calm resilience in the face of adversity.

“No child who would ordinarily receive a free school meal should go without this while their school is closed or while they are having to self-isolate at home.”

The vouchers are available to all primary and secondary school pupils in England who qualify for free school meals and are not able to attend lessons because of the coronavirus outbreak.

According to official government guidelines, your child qualifies for free school meals if you receive income support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance or Universal Credit.

There are a number of other benefits that could mean your child qualifies. For more information, click here.

The vouchers are worth ?15-a-week, equivalent to ?3 per day, for each child eligible. This means that if you have two children eligible, then you are entitled to ?30 of vouchers per week which can be used during term-time and through the Easter holidays.

The government claims that the vouchers are an increase of 70p on what schools are usually paid to provide free meals.

However, some headteachers have warned that even with the vouchers, some parents may still struggle to feed their children due to the additional costs associated with having a child at home during the day.

“Let’s be under no illusions, this will be a tough situation,” said Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.

“It will be challenging for parents and carers who already have the extra cost of children unexpectedly at home for an extended period.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, added: “There may be some kinks to work out of the scheme, especially as it has been developed at pace, but at least there is some certainty available now.”’

The government explains that schools will have received an email from the Edenred portal with an activation code and a step-by-step guide that instructs them how to use the online portal to order vouchers.

Once a school’s account has been activated on the portal, vouchers can be ordered.

Schools are presented with a variety of options for ordering vouchers, including ordering a single voucher to cover a long period of time, ordering a single voucher to cover more than one eligible child in the same household and organising a weekly voucher of ?15.

Once the value of the voucher has been decided, it can be sent to families in several ways, including having an eCode sent directly to the parent or carer of the student who qualifies for free school meals.

You can also print and post an eGift card to the families, or arrange for the families to collect it themselves.

The government stresses that schools should only send an eCode through the Edenred portal to parents or carers if the family has a working email account that they can access.

Once the redemption eCode has been sent to families, they should receive it along with instructions on how to use it to create an eGift card within four days.

Through Edenred, eGift cards can be created to be used at Aldi, Asda, Marks & Spencer, McColl’s, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose.

The devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have put in place their own plans to ensure children entitled to free school meals continue to get them.

On Tuesday 16 June, Scotland first minister Nicola Sturgeon stated that the country's free school meals scheme would be extended throughout the summer holidays, with an extra ?12.6m provided to councils to fund the scheme.

In Wales, politicians have said they are developing their own national voucher scheme. However, schools have been told that they must make provision themselves until the end of Easter.

Across the Irish Sea, the Stormont officials have pledged to make payments into the bank accounts of parents or carers whose children qualify for free meals. There is no need to apply.