Free School Meals Entitlement Update

For those families who receive the Free School Meal Entitlement , please note the following information:

The Dept of Education, Education Authority and Dept .of Communities will process a fortnightly payment directly to parents via their bank account.

The Education Authority has the bank details for those entitled via the FSME /School uniform grant. If the EA ,does not have your bank details , they will contact you by text message.

School-based staff will have no role in processing payments .

Statement from Minister of Education:

1. _This is very welcome news to those families who are struggling financially.  My Department has been working with the Education Authority to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. 

“Starting next week, the Education Authority will process payments for some 97,000 children in the same way they do for uniform grants.  The Education Authority already has the bank details for the vast majority of those in receipt of free school meals so there is no need for anyone to apply. 

“There are however a number of families for whom bank details are not held.  

“These families will be contacted via a text message early next week and advised to complete an online form which will then be available on the Education Authority website.   It is vital that people respond to any request from the Education Authority, to avoid delay in payment.  

“This is a major undertaking, involving thousands of payments in a completely new package of support and the Education Authority will make every effort to get these payments out to families next week.  We would ask everyone to bear with us as not all families may get the funding at the same time.  I want to assure them that they will receive payments which will be backdated."

Take care and keep safe .