What is pupil premium? A parent's guide
Pupil premium is extra government funding paid directly to state schools in England for each eligible disadvantaged pupil. It's not paid to parents, and it isn't a benefit you can claim or spend yourself. The school decides how to use it, within a framework set by the Department for Education.
For parents the important things to understand are: Whether your child is eligible (you'll need to apply for free school meals if you haven't), how much extra funding the school receives because of your child, what the school is allowed to spend it on, and what you can reasonably ask to see. This guide covers each of those in turn.
How much funding does a school receive per child?
The Department for Education has confirmed pupil premium rates for the 2025-26 financial year (£1,515 primary FSM Ever 6). The 2026-27 rates below are expected to align with the confirmed 2025-26 figures and are subject to DfE confirmation.
| Pupil group | Annual rate (2026-27) | Eligibility window |
|---|---|---|
| Primary pupil eligible for free school meals (Ever 6 FSM) | £1,550 | Eligible for FSM at any point in the past 6 years |
| Secondary pupil eligible for free school meals (Ever 6 FSM) | £1,100 | Eligible for FSM at any point in the past 6 years |
| Looked-after or previously looked-after child | £2,690 | Currently in care, or adopted, or under special guardianship from care |
| Service pupil premium | £360 | Parent in regular armed forces, or registered as a service child in past 6 years |
The primary rate is higher than the secondary rate because the Department for Education's view is that early intervention has the biggest impact. The looked-after rate is paid to whichever school the child attends, but managed by the local authority's virtual school head. Service pupil premium is more modest because it's intended to support pastoral needs rather than close an attainment gap.
Who is eligible?
Most pupil premium eligibility flows through free school meals. A child currently receives free school meals if the family meets one of these criteria:
Free school meals eligibility in England (2026)
Your child qualifies if your household receives any of the following. The Universal Credit threshold is the most common route.
- Universal Credit, with household earned income (after tax) below £7,400 per year
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The guaranteed element of Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit (without Working Tax Credit) with annual income below £16,190
- Working Tax Credit run-on (the 4-week payment after stopping qualifying work)
All infant-school children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 in England receive a free school lunch automatically under the separate Universal Infant Free School Meals scheme. That doesn't make them eligible for pupil premium. You still need to apply for benefit-based free school meals through your local authority so the school can claim the funding.
Even if your child won't eat the school meal in practice, register if you're eligible. Registration is what triggers the pupil premium payment to the school. Once registered, your child counts as 'Ever 6 FSM' for the next six years, even if your income later rises above the threshold.
What changes from September 2026
From the start of the 2026-27 academic year, free school meal eligibility in England expands under the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026. The result is a two-tier system, and the distinction matters for pupil premium.
Targeted FSM keeps the existing £7,400 Universal Credit earned-income threshold (plus the other benefit routes listed above). This is the cohort that continues to attract pupil premium funding and the Ever 6 protection.
Expanded FSM extends a free school meal to all children in households receiving Universal Credit, with no earnings limit. This brings in a much larger group of children, but Expanded FSM does not attract pupil premium funding, and these pupils do not qualify for the Ever 6 protection.
Eligibility for a free meal is no longer the same thing as eligibility for pupil premium. From September 2026 a child can be entitled to a free school lunch under the expanded scheme but bring in no extra funding for the school, while another child whose family meets the £7,400 Targeted FSM threshold still triggers the pupil premium and the Ever 6 protection.
What can schools spend it on?
The Department for Education sets a broad framework rather than a prescriptive list. Schools are expected to use pupil premium against a tiered menu of evidence-based options drawn from the Education Endowment Foundation's research:
First, high-quality teaching for all pupils (the EEF rates this as the highest-impact use of funding). Second, targeted academic support for pupils who need to catch up, including small-group tuition and one-to-one work. Third, wider strategies addressing non-academic barriers, such as attendance support, breakfast clubs, counselling, school trips, uniform, and equipment.
Schools must publish a pupil premium strategy statement each year explaining how they're using the funding, what outcomes they're targeting, and whether last year's strategy worked. You can ask to see it.
What this means for your child in practice
Pupil premium funding is pooled at the school, not ringfenced to your specific child. A primary school with 60 eligible pupils on the primary FSM Ever 6 rate would receive roughly £91,000 a year at the current confirmed 2025-26 rate (60 × £1,515). That's a simplified illustration: Actual school totals vary because some pupils attract the secondary rate, the service premium, or the higher LAC/PLAC rate. That pot might pay for a full-time intervention teacher, three teaching assistants in literacy and numeracy small groups, and a school counsellor across the week. Your child might benefit from all of those, or from one of them, depending on need.
If you'd like to know what your child specifically is getting, it's a fair conversation to have with the class teacher or head of year. Many schools track pupil premium pupils explicitly and can tell you which interventions they've been included in. If the school can't tell you, that's a flag worth raising with the head.
Other support pupil premium often triggers
Free school meals registration unlocks more than the pupil premium itself. Depending on your local authority and the school, registration often gives your child access to free uniform vouchers, subsidised or free residential and school trips, free music lessons or instrument hire, free after-school clubs or holiday provision, and reduced or free exam resit fees in some sixth forms.
Worth checking the local offer on your council's website and the school's own bursary or hardship policy. None of this is automatic, but it's usually available if you ask.
How to apply
Apply for free school meals through your local authority's website. The application takes about 10 minutes and checks against benefits data in real time, so many parents get a decision the same day. The school is then notified automatically.
If your circumstances change (a redundancy, a switch from Working Tax Credit to Universal Credit, a separation), reapply. The Ever 6 protection means a child who was eligible at any point in the past six years still attracts pupil premium funding, but the protection only starts from the date you first register.
For looked-after and previously looked-after children, the local authority manages the funding directly through the virtual school head; adoptive parents need to let the school know their child was previously in care so the higher rate can be claimed.
