No money? Children at school? Can they help?

Money is tight and I am worried about costs associated with school. Can they help at all?

It is worth remembering that your child may well be entitled to free school meals. Every school office will be able to give you the appropriate form to fill in to apply. It may seem like a small thing but those £1.70 s do mount up quite quickly and suddenly you are into a debt of £50 or so which is difficult to find.

As far as other costs go of course there aren’t too many in the state sector. School trips are a part of the school curriculum and, as such, it is actually not legal for schools to make a compulsory charge for them. The way schools get around this is to say to parents that a voluntary contribution is required to cover the cost of the trip and that if a sufficient number of voluntary contributions are not received then the trip cannot go ahead. In practice, in an area where it may just be around 10% of the pupils that are unable to make a voluntary contribution, a school will usually be able to find the money from somewhere!

These days many schools have a family liaison worker attached to them too and she will usually be a good source of advice about benefits, grants and dispensations that may well be available to you. Ask at the school office for an appointment.

The usual advice applies if things are tight – talk to the school about it. They will at least try to help. The worst thing to do is to pretend there isn’t a problem and wait until you have incurred all sorts of debts before contacting them.