Families in hardship could qualify for new £100 payment

DUNDEE families could be eligible for an additional £100 from next month under a new Scottish Government payment aimed at helping people through the pandemic.

The delivery of the Scottish Government’s Covid Spring Hardship Payment will provide a £100 sum to families for each child who receives free school meals, or free lunches in early learning and childcare settings, on the basis of low income.

For those in receipt of free meals on February 16, the payment will be made on April 1.

For eligible children who registered for free school meals or free lunches after February 16 and prior to the Easter holidays, payments will be made no later than the end of April.

No application for the payment is required and payments will be made automatically to the qualifying families’ bank account in the same fashion as free school meal payments.

The payment can be used by families for any purpose as they see fit, there is no expectation that the £100 be used for any specific purpose.

This is in addition to support delivered through the continuation of free school meals over the Easter holidays and is separate from the Covid Winter Hardship Payment.

Children and young people who receive free school meals as a result of local authority discretion, including those with no recourse to public funds, are eligible.

But you will not get the payment if your child gets universal free school meals in primary 1 to 3 (primary 4 in some schools) and you do not meet the eligibility criteria or does not go to a council school or is home educated.

Councillor Willie Sawers, Dundee City Council’s finance spokesperson said: “This additional payment will be very beneficial to families given the stage we are now in in the pandemic. Families will be facing different financial pressures.”

More information on the Spring Hardship Payment is available on the Dundee City Council website.

Willie Sawers