Videos about Free School Meals
Free School Meals and Uniform Allowances - Information on Applying
EA Connect Videos
Proof of Benefit Letter
You can request a Proof of Benefit letter if you are in receipt of one of the following:
- Income Support;
- Income Based Jobseeker’s Allowance;
- Income Related Employment and Support Allowance;
- Guarantee Element of State Pension Credit;
You should request a Proof of Benefits letter now via Get a proof of benefit letter. It will take at least five days to be sent to you. Once you receive the letter keep it securely and then upload a copy of the letter when you apply for Free School Meals and Uniform.
Universal Credit Claimant Statement
Images illustrating an example of a Universal Credit Claimant Statement. If you are applying for Free School Meals and Uniform Allowance, you must attach all pages of your most recent Universal Credit Claimant Statement, which can be found by logging into your Universal Credit account and clicking on your most recent payment details where you will be shown the breakdown of all payments and deductions of how your Universal Credit has been calculated. The relevant pages need to include your full name and address; the dates and amounts of payment and all entitlements and deductions. This will ensure you provide us with all of the necessary information with your application.
Uploading Universal Credit Documents
If applying under Universal Credit, please ensure you take screen shots of your most recent Universal Credit Claimant Statement and upload them to the application form.
Please ensure that the screen shots contain all the following information: name, address, payments, and deductions.
To access your Universal Credit Claimant Statement:
- Log onto your Universal Credit account.
- Go to Payments.
- Statement
- View Statement by date
- Click on the link for your latest payment at the top of the list and the detailed document will open.
- Screen shot all pages of the Claimant Statement, ensuring that you capture your name/address, the full payment breakdown and all of the deductions.
- Upload the images of your Universal Credit Claimant Statement to the application form at stage 2.
Or follow steps 1 to 5 and then
- Go to Print option on top right-hand side of screen, in your latest Claimant Statement
- Click print this statement
- When page opens, at top of page select
icon
- Choose to save to files as PDF
- Upload file containing your Universal Credit Claimant Statement to the application form at stage 2
If you require further support, contact the Meals and Uniform Service.
Uploading Tax Credits Award Notices
If applying under Child Tax Credit or Working Tax Credit, please ensure you include all pages of your 2024-2025 Tax Credits Award Notice or your Annual Review Notice which states on page 1 ‘Check now, no later than 31/07/2024’. These must be uploaded to the application form.
You can upload all pages of your Tax Credit Awards Notice by:
- Photographing all pages of your Tax Credits Award Notice and uploading the images (JPEG) to the application form; or
- Scanning all pages of your Tax Credits Award Notice and uploading to the application form as a PDF.
Please note there is a 16MB size limit for uploads so if the number of photos exceed the size limit they will not upload.
If you do not have access to a scanner you can download a free scanner app to your smartphone that will allow you to scan your Tax Credits Award Notice and save it as a PDF to your device before uploading to the application form.
If you require further support, contact the Meals and Uniform Service.