Apply for free school meals
Infant school meals
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 receive qualifying benefits or targeted free school meals, your child may be entitled to other programmes of support.
Year 3 and above and secondary
Your child may be able to get free school meals if you get any of the following:
Universal Credit
Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
the guarantee element of Pension Credit
Other circumstances
You can only apply to claim free school meals if your child attends a maintained nursery school or class. To be eligible your child must attend for a full day and must you get one of the qualifying benefits.
Children who attend 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.
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:
Apply
Apply online
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:
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 form (PDF 939 KB)
Please return completed forms to:
If you apply by post we will notify you by email, or post if you do not provide an email address.
*Other programmes of support
If you get Universal Credit and have a household income of less than £7,400 a year your child may also be entitled to:
free transport to school
the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme
Pupil Premium funding for the school
Visit free school meals related support for more information.
Contact us
New applications
We are currently managing an increase in applications since the government extended the eligibility criteria. We will try to respond to all applications before the start of the autumn term 2026.
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.
Free school meals email addresses by area:
Lancaster, Morecambe, Wyre and Fylde (North)
Preston, South Ribble, Chorley and West Lancashire (South)
Hyndburn, Ribble Valley, Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale (East)
Proof of benefit
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:
Universal Credit award notice - we will need to see your full paper award notice or screen shot/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