School holiday periods in Spring, summer, and Christmas 2023, and Easter 2024.
Food vouchers will be available for:
- Families of children eligible for means-tested Free School Meals
- Families on low incomes with pre-school children aged 0-5 (using Free School Meal eligibility criteria)
- Care leavers under 25. Please see below for details and frequently asked questions
- Young people eligible for Free School Meals at Oldham College and Oldham Sixth Form College
School holiday food voucher support will be available for Spring holiday 2023, summer holiday 2023, Christmas holiday 2023 and Easter holiday 2024.
Families do not need to apply for the vouchers as the Council is working with Oldham schools and colleges to identify eligible families and issue the vouchers through an online system.
Vouchers
The value of the food voucher will be £15 per eligible child or young person for the spring holiday, £60 per eligible child over the summer holiday and £40 per eligible child for each of the Christmas and Easter holiday periods.
Oldham Schools will issue food vouchers for children on their school roll who are eligible for income-based Free School Meals.
Oldham Council will issue food vouchers for those families on a low income with pre-school children by post or email / text where they have signed up to receive them electronically.
Oldham Sixth Form College and Oldham College will issue direct payments to students who are eligible for free meals.
We aim to get this support out for children and young people immediately prior to each of the holiday periods.
Unfortunately, the vouchers can't be exchanged for cash or a cheque.
Where to use the vouchers
If you have received a notification from your child’s school or the Council by text message or email about the voucher, you will have a choice of supermarkets to select from before you download your voucher.
If you receive a voucher in the post, the supermarket will have already been selected and is likely to be either a Tesco or an Aldi voucher.
If you have received a voucher in the post, the only option is to have the supermarket that has been selected for you.
How to access your vouchers
The EVouchers website has a step-by-step guide to accessing your vouchers.
Please download your voucher if you intend to use it.
Any vouchers that haven’t been downloaded a month after issue, will be reassigned to support other vulnerable families.
Support
Currently, this support from the government is only available until Spring 2024, with Easter vouchers being the last available.
For any families who will continue to struggle for food and provisions support is available:
Those children and young people eligible for free school meals during term time will continue to be supported by their schools and colleges.
The Holiday Activities and Food Programme will also support those entitled to means-tested free school meals. Information on this is available at:
Apply for Free School Meals
Common questions about Food Vouchers
I don’t want the voucher, what do I do?
If you have received a voucher in the post, please return it to the Council and we will ensure this is used by a family in need.
If you do not redeem your online voucher within a month of its issue, you do not need to do anything as your unused voucher will be reassigned to another family.
I have received the letter but no vouchers are included
The vouchers were included with all the letters issued by post. Unfortunately, we cannot re-issue them.
I have received the letter but have not received the number of vouchers I was expecting
Vouchers have been issued by schools to all the eligible children on the school roll.
Further educational establishments have issued direct payment to their eligible students and the Council has issued letters in the post with printed vouchers.
This means that funding for your child or young person may be received in different ways so may not all be included via one method.
I live in Manchester, but my child goes to school in Oldham and is entitled to free school meals, will I get the vouchers?
Yes, the vouchers are available for children and young people who attend schools and further education establishments in Oldham.
I live in Oldham and my child goes to school in another borough and is entitled to free school meals, will I get the vouchers?
We have an informal arrangement with many other Local Authorities to cover the cost of Oldham children and young people attending schools in their boroughs and we will do the same for their children attending schools in Oldham.
However, let us know if you live in Oldham and your child is entitled to Free School Meals, attends an out of borough school and you do not receive food voucher support and we will check the situation out for you.
We do not want children to lose out on this much needed support.
I’m not happy, can I appeal the decision not to award a food voucher?
Unfortunately, there is no formal right of appeal against the Council’s decision to issue a food voucher.
I usually get a voucher in October and February too, but I haven’t received one?
The council are aware that families struggle more over the longer holidays, such as summer, Christmas and Easter. To make the biggest impact for families with the limited funding, and to ensure we can help the groups that the government have identified as needing support, the decision has been made to provide more support specifically during those holidays.
Any family struggling to feed their family during any time of the year can seek help by calling our Helpline on 0161 770 7007.