Pupil
and Student Finance
Free School Meals for Asylum Seekers
Overview
If you are an Asylum Seeker and your child/children attend a Bexley Borough local authority maintained school,
you may be entitled to Free School Meals under the Immigration and Asylum
Act 1999.
If you have a child that attends a school outside Bexley Borough, you will need to apply to the Borough responsible for that school.
If you are an Asylum Seeker and the family is in receipt of:
- Income Support; or,
- Income-based Job Seekers Allowance; or,
- Child Tax Credit, but not Working Tax Credit, and have an annual income
(as assessed by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) of £15,575 or below
from 6 April 2008. With regard to Tax Credits please refer to the Her Majesty's
Revenue and Customs guidelines for qualification and definition of household
income; or,
- Guarantee Element of State Pension Credit
please complete the 'Free School Meals Application Form' and not the 'Free School Meals Application Form for Asylum Seekers'.
Families not receiving government support payments may be entitled to Free School Meals if they have one of the following documents:
- Home Office documentation confirming Asylum Seeker status and Port
of Entry and/or Home Office reference number, OR
- If applicable, National Asylum Support Service (NASS) documentation
including reference,
- AND evidence that they are the parent/legal carer
responsible for the child/children they wish to claim Free School Meals,
e.g. Home Office documentation / NASS documentation / IND Application
Registration Cards.
Applying for assistance
A form is available by post from the Pupil and Student Finance Team. Alternatively, you can download a form using the following link:
If you are not an Asylum Seeker, please do not complete this form. Find the
information you require here.
Providing evidence to support your claim
You will need to confirm asylum seeker status and your legal responsibility
for the child/children. Acceptable forms of evidence are:
Evidence of Asylum Seeker status
- Home Office documentation confirming Asylum Seeker status and Port
of Entry and/or Home Office reference number, OR
- If applicable, National Asylum Support Service (NASS) documentation
including reference,
AND
Parent / Legal Carer status
- Evidence that you are the parent/legal carer responsible for the child/children
you wish to claim Free School Meals e.g. Home Office documentation / NASS
documentation / IND Application Registration Cards.
Fully completed application forms will be processed within 28 working days.
However, if the necessary evidence is not included with your application, this
will delay the processing of your application, your form may
be returned to you and
no Free School Meal award will be made. You will then
be liable to pay for all meals that your child/children receive. Therefore, please assist us by enclosing the correct documentation.
You must inform the Pupil and Student Finance Team immediately if you change address, stop receiving any of the qualifying support payment/benefits or any other circumstance that might affect entitlement to Free School Meals.
If your child/children receive Free School Meals that they are not entitled to, you will be liable to pay for all meals that they have a school.
The information provided to the local authority will be used to process the application for Free School Meals and the local authority will contact other sources as allowed by the law to verify initial and ongoing entitlement which will be undertaken on a termly basis. The results of any Free School Meal eligibility check may also be used to assess entitlement to other support by the London Borough of Bexley.
If you have any queries regarding these guidelines please contact
us using the contact details on the left of this
page.
Applicants are advised that it is a criminal offence knowingly
to make an untrue statement or other false representation to obtain a grant,
contribution or other financial benefit from the Borough. This Borough
is under a duty to protect the public funds it administers and to this
end may use the information you have provided within the authority for
the prevention and detection of fraud. It may also share this information
with other bodies administering public funds solely for these purposes. |
