Home Education - Retrospective payment
Dumfries and Galloway Council recently agreed to make compensatory payments to home educated children in place of the Scottish Child Payment Bridging Payments. These payments were only available for children who were attending formal education, provided to families who satisfied the financial criteria for Free School Meals.
Eight separate bridging payments were made to children eligible for Free School Meals on financial grounds.
Dumfries and Galloway Council have now agreed to make compensatory payments to families who could not receive these payments because their child was not in formal education at the time.
The periods and value for payments were as follows:
Payment Value
Spring 2021 (Covid Spring Hardship Payment) £100.00
Summer 2021 (Family Pandemic Payment) £100.00
Autumn 2021 £160.00
Winter 2021 (Family Pandemic Payment) £160.00
Spring 2022 £130.00
Summer 2022 £130.00
Autumn 2022 £130.00
Winter 2022 £260.00
Entitlement for compensatory payments will be assessed for each period, based on the criteria of financial based Free School meals in place at the time, e.g., entitlement for the Spring 2021 payment will be assessed on the criteria for awards in Spring 2021 and what your household income at that time.
The criteria for the payments were:
A child/young person is eligible to receive Free School Meals, where the household is in receipt of:
- Universal Credit (where monthly earned income is not more than £610 (spring 2021) - £660 (Winter 2022)
- Income Support
- Jobseeker's Allowance (Income Based)
- Employment and Support Allowance (Income Based)
- Child Tax Credit (only) where household income is less than £16,105 (spring 2021) - £17,005 (Winter 2022)
- Child Tax Credit AND Working Tax Credit where the household income is less than £7,330 (spring 2021) - £7,920 (Winter 2022)
To assess your eligibility for this payment, we need an application for every home educated child. Please complete the application below:
Please provide your phone number, so that we can call you should we need any further information.
On receipt of a completed application, we will make 3 checks:
- your child had consent to be home educated during this period. This consent would have been provided by letter to you following your request to withdraw your child from school.
- your financial circumstances for each period meet the financial criteria for income related free meals during each period. If you are in receipt of means tested Council Tax Reduction, we will use your information held on your record. If you are not in receipt of Council Tax Reduction, we will require evidence to be supplied by email to educationbenefits@dumgal.gov.uk.
- your child was aged to be in mandatory formal education at the time.
Any queries relating to this, or a submitted application should be sent to EducationBenefits@dumgal.gov.uk. Please remember to include the name(s) and date(s) of birth of the child or children you are applying for, as well as your full name and your full address.
