Expansion of school meals for children with No Recourse to Public Funds

Sustain has welcomed an update to eligibility for Free School Meals (FSM) for children from families living under the No Resource to Public Funds (NRPF) immigration condition.

The new guidance updates the previous "Targeted FSM" thresholds to take account of cost of living and inflation, and a second set of income thresholds now also provides "Expanded FSM" eligiblity for children in NRPF families, reflecting recent expansion of Free School Meals to all families in receipt of Universal Credit. 

Together, the revised thresholds should mean many more children in families living with NRPF will be able to access free school meals, as well as other benefits.

Sustain's Children's Food Campaign Manager Barbara Crowther says:

"We're really pleased that the government has recognised that children living in families with No Recourse to Public Funds often have very low incomes and are at higher risk of food insecurity and deprivation. It's absolutely right for the Government to ensure these children were not overlooked as eligibility for other families was expanded to all those in receipt of Universal Credit. We and our partners working on children's rights and child poverty, had been actively raising concerns with the Department for Education on behalf of these children, so we're very pleased they have responded and published revised income thresholds.

"We hope schools will be given adequate support to ensure all eligible children under this policy are registered. The separate application process for NRPF families is not straightforward, and can take significant time and expertise to navigate. This remains a key challenge in our school food system, and we hope further solutions can be found.

Our ultimate vision however, is for universal school meals to remove all forms of means testing from our state-funded education system. Evidence shows this would deliver the strongest benefits for children, families and the wider economy. A fully universal system might also alleviate the increasingly complex and administratively burdensome system for registering all the different types of eligibility that hard pressed schools and councils are having to manage too."

Schools are responsible for identifying, assessing and registering children with NRPF, and ensuring these are included in their census figures due to be returned by 2 November 2026, in order to receive government funding for meals.  

A separate template application form for schools to use to complete this exercise has also been shared by the Department for Education. This is different from the eligibility checking system used for other children from families receiving benefits. 

Children eligible under the 'Targeted FSM' category will also:

• attract pupil premium and other disadvantage funding for their schools 
• have eligibility for the Holiday Activities and Food programme (HAF)  
• have eligibility for the ‘extended rights’ element of school travel assistance 

As well as meeting one of the income thresholds above, families must hold no more than £16,000 in capital and savings, which is the same rule applying to applicants for Universal Credit.

 Full revised government guidance NRPF and free school meals