Clothing grants and free school meals

Clothing grants

If you are in receipt of Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Reduction from us there is no need for you to apply online, we will use the information we hold to automatically award free school meals (P6 to S6) and/or clothing grants (early years establishments, nursery and P1 to S6) to eligible families.

Please note that Single Person Discount on your Council Tax is not classed as Council Tax Reduction. Universal Credit recipients should only apply online if they are not receiving Council Tax Reduction.

From 2023/24, clothing grants will be extended to 3 and 4 year olds in early years establishments (nursery). You will be entitled to a clothing grant to buy a uniform if you have a child who attends an early years establishment (nursery) or school in South Lanarkshire and you are in receipt of any of the following benefits:

Income Support
Universal Credit (and your earned income is less than £1,390 as assessed by the Department for Work and Pensions in the assessment period immediately preceding your application for a clothing grant)
Job Seekers Allowance (income based)
Employment and Support allowance (income related)
Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Reduction
Working Tax Credit and/or Child Tax Credit (where your gross annual income is less than £18,725 as assessed by HM Revenues and Customs on your Tax Credit Award Notice TC602)

Please note that it is the total household income that is taken into account for any applications made.

For the academic year 2023/24, you will receive a grant of £130 for each early years establishment (nursery) child and primary school child in the family, and £150 for each secondary school child in the family. Please note, children returning for 5th or 6th year will have their awards paid from August, once their school has confirmed that they are attending.

Applications can now be made for the academic year 2023/24 starting in August 2023.

Your clothing grant will be paid directly into your bank account by BACS. In exceptional circumstances, payment may be made by cheque. Payments will be made from the 23 June 2023.

If you have received a cheque for your clothing grant payment, you can cash this free of charge at the following banks in South Lanarkshire (you don't need to have a bank account to do this):

Royal Bank of Scotland
Bank of Scotland
Clydesdale Bank (now Virgin Money)

You will need to bring two official forms of identification with you such as your driver’s licence or a recent Tax Credit award letter. You'll also be asked to sign the back of the cheque in front of the bank teller. Please don't separate the cheque from the remittance advice as both need to be intact for the bank to cash the cheque.

If you are receiving Working Tax Credit and/or Child Tax Credit or Universal Credit we will need to see a copy of your Tax Credit Award Notice (TC602) or your latest Universal Credit online statement. You can attach a scan or photograph of this with your online application form, or post a copy to the address shown on the right hand side (or bottom) of this page.

Please note: copies of notices will not be returned to you. Please do not send in original documents, as these will not be returned to you.

If you are in receipt of Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Reduction from us, do not complete our online application. We will use the information we hold to automatically award a clothing grant to eligible families.

Single Person Discount on your Council Tax is not classed as Council Tax Reduction. If you are receiving a single person discount on your Council Tax, you should still apply for a clothing grant/free school meals using our online form. Universal Credit recipients should only apply online if they are NOT receiving Council Tax Reduction.

Please note: if you are applying under Kinship Care (when a child is looked after by their extended family or close friends if they cannot remain with their parents) then please email the Clothing Grant Helpline.

If you were awarded a clothing grant last year, there is no need to re-apply if your circumstances have not changed. This will be awarded automatically.

Apply for a clothing grant/free school meals

You will be asked to upload evidence on the application form. We can accept jpegs and pdf files but we advise pdfs as the file size is smaller.

Please don’t take photos of your PC screen or phone screen as these can be blurry. If you need to do this you should use the screenshot/print screen function on your PC or phone.

When you take a photo of a document such as a bank statement sometimes the file sizes are too big, especially if you have to upload a lot of different images to your form. This can cause the form to fail and we advise converting jpegs to pdfs. You can do this in the following ways.

On an Android phone

select image you want
from the menu select print image
select Save as pdf
choose where to save it
save

On an iPhone

select the image you want
tap the sharing button and select Print
at the Printer options screen, use a spreading gesture with your fingers on the image preview to show Save as pdf
select Share the converted photo as PDF and choose where to save it

On a PC

right click on the icon of the image
select Convert to Adobe pdf
click on the Save file icon in the top left hand corner
select where to save it
name it
save

If you have received a letter advising you to provide your bank details for your clothing grant payment, or a letter/email about the Winter Support Fund, please click on the Clothing grant - BACS payment button below to provide this information.

Clothing grant - BACS payment

If you are in receipt of certain benefits, you and your family may qualify for a leisure concession card giving you up to 50% off the cost of swimming, fitness classes, children's activities and other activities with South Lanarkshire Leisure. Full details can be found on the South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture website.