Hundreds of school children's clothing grants saved after unanimous decision from Fife Cabinet

Approximately 300 children in Fife stood to lose their school clothing grant entitlement prior to a unanimous Fife Cabinet decision on Thursday.

It’s all due to the UK Government’s ongoing push to migrate people on “legacy benefits”, including Tax Credits, onto Universal Credit.

The Cabinet made a unanimous decision to protect those families who have been, or will be, migrated to the new benefits system.

“The migration of those currently eligible for Tax Credits to Universal Credit will result in a reduction in those who qualify for this benefit,” a committee report said.

“The proposals will reverse the reductions seen in clothing grants awarded which have reduced between 2021 to 2024 by around 1200.”

The report continued: “The recommendation would ensure that those who have been eligible for school clothing grants for their children under the tax credit system will continue to be eligible once they have moved over to Universal Credit.”

The committee unanimously supported the changes to the criteria.

“I welcome this change, but I think we probably should have done it sooner,” Labour Education spokesperson Cara Hilton said.

Lesley Backhouse (SNP for Burntisland, Kinghorn and Western Kirkcaldy) was also really pleased to see the changes come forward.

“At one of my surgeries, I had a single mum come and she was in this exact category,” she said.

“For the people that are really struggling, this is a really welcome change.”

Councillor Judy Hamilton (Labour for Kirkcaldy Central) welcomed the decision to protect families in Fife from losing their school clothing grant, but she also raised concerns about those same families losing access to free school meals.

“I’ve come across families who have fallen into this trap where they’ve moved from Tax Credit onto Universal Credit and they don’t qualify for free school meals anymore,” she said.

Mr Robertson confirmed this was an issue. Fife’s clothing grant was previously based on Holyrood’s criteria for free school meals, but Mr Robertson acknowledged that families previously at risk of losing their Fife Council clothing grant could also be at risk of losing free school meals.

“The free school meal criteria is set by the Scottish Government. We don’t set the free school meal criteria,” he said.

“We have raised it with the Education Directorate at the Scottish Government. It is something they’re looking at, but we haven’t had any update yet.”

Mr Robertson added: “We do need to do something here. As we’ve already said, for our clothing grant we’ve identified 300 children that when they migrate to Universal Credit won’t be eligible. So they won’t be eligible for free school meals either.”

Under the newly approved changes, the qualifying criteria for Fife Council’s school clothing grant includes families in receipt of:

Income Support
Job Seeker’s Allowance (Income Based)
Employment and Support Allowance (Income Related)
Child Tax Credit only with annual income below £19,995
Universal Credit, with monthly earned income of no more than £1666
Support Under Part VI of Immigration & Asylum Act 1999
Long Term Incapacity Benefit (clothing grant only)
Widows Allowance if not in full time employment (clothing grant only)
Child and Working Tax Credit with annual income below £19,995 (clothing grant only)
The changes will be applied retrospectively from August 2024 to cover the entire 2024/25 school term.