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Pupil Premium Explained: Who Qualifies, the 2026 to 2027 Rates, and What Schools Spend It On

Pupil premium is extra money the government pays a state school in England for each disadvantaged pupil on its roll: £1,550 a year for a primary pupil and £1,100 for a secondary pupil in 2026 to 2027, and £2,690 for a child who is or was in care. It is not paid to parents. From September 2026 there is a catch every family on Universal Credit should know: the new free school meals for all Universal Credit households do not bring pupil premium with them. Only the older, lower-income group still counts. Here is who qualifies, how the money is meant to be spent, and how to see what your child's school does with it.

Who counts for pupil premium

A school receives pupil premium for pupils from reception to year 11 who are:

• Recorded as eligible for free school meals now or at any point in the past six years, known as "FSM Ever 6". A child registered for free meals in year 1 still brings funding in year 6, even if the family's income has since risen.
• Looked after by a local authority, or previously looked after: adopted from care, or left care under a special guardianship order or a child arrangements order. This includes children adopted from state care outside England and Wales.
• Service children: a parent serving in the regular armed forces, recorded as a service child on a school census in the past six years, or a parent who died in service and a pension under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme or War Pensions Scheme. This is the service pupil premium.

Sixth-form pupils are not included. Funding for a given year is based on the October school census before it, so for 2026 to 2027 the count came from the October 2025 census.

The 2026 change: targeted and expanded free school meals

From the start of the 2026 to 2027 school year, every child in a household receiving Universal Credit can get free school meals, whatever the family earns. The Department for Education now splits benefits-based free meals into two groups:

Targeted free meals also cover households on income-related Employment and Support Allowance, the guarantee element of Pension Credit, and support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. The DfE's pupil premium conditions of grant say plainly that the new expanded group does not count as "free school meals" for pupil premium purposes. Our guide to free school meals for Universal Credit families covers how to apply.

Why applying still matters, even for infants

All children in reception, year 1 and year 2 already get a free lunch under universal infant free school meals. That leads many families to skip the free school meals application. The DfE asks schools to encourage these families to apply anyway, because a child who qualifies for targeted free meals brings pupil premium, and that funding follows them for six years. At today's rate, one form from an eligible family can bring a primary school £10,850 over the seven years from reception to year 6.

Transitional protection ended at the end of the 2025 to 2026 school year. Since 2018, pupils who qualified for free meals kept them while Universal Credit was rolled out, even if earnings rose. From September 2026, schools and councils check each household's current circumstances, and recheck every year. If your circumstances changed and you have not heard from the school, ask whether your child is recorded as targeted or expanded.

How schools are allowed to spend it

Pupil premium is a grant, not a personal budget for your child. Schools must spend it on evidence-informed activities from the DfE's "menu of approaches", which follows the Education Endowment Foundation's three tiers: high-quality teaching first, then targeted academic support such as tutoring, then wider strategies such as attendance and behaviour support. The rules let schools spend it on whole-class approaches that also help other pupils, and on children with other identified needs, for example young carers or pupils with a social worker.

What that means for families:

• You cannot ask the school to hand over "your" £1,550, or spend it on a specific item.
• You can ask what support your child is getting, and how the school decides who gets tutoring or small-group help.
• Some schools use part of the grant for trips, music lessons or uniform for disadvantaged pupils where it links to their plan. Ask; it varies.

Looked-after children are handled differently. Their pupil premium plus goes to the council, and the virtual school head decides with the child's school how to use it, linked to the child's personal education plan. Service pupil premium does not have to follow the menu; it is mainly for pastoral support during deployments and moves.

Check your school's pupil premium strategy statement

Every school whose allocation is based on more than five eligible pupils must publish a pupil premium strategy statement on its website each year, using the DfE template. For 2026 to 2027 the deadline is 31 December 2026. It sets out how many pupils are eligible, the main barriers the school has identified, what it is spending the money on, and how last year's spending worked. Multi-academy trusts can pool the money, but each academy still publishes its own statement.

If you are comparing schools, the statement is one of the more honest documents a school publishes: it names the gaps it is trying to close. Pair it with the school's results for disadvantaged pupils in the performance tables and the latest Ofsted report.

When the money arrives

The DfE pays pupil premium quarterly. For council-maintained schools in 2026 to 2027 the instalments are 30 June, 30 September and 31 December 2026, then 31 March 2027. Academies are paid a few days later in each quarter. Council-maintained schools must receive the money even if their main budget is in deficit, and it sits outside the school's normal budget share.

Sources: Department for Education, Pupil premium: conditions of grant and technical note for the 2026 to 2027 financial year (updated 23 September 2026); DfE, Free school meals: guidance for schools and local authorities and Implementing changes to free school meals (updated 7 October 2026). Checked 22 October 2026. Read the DfE pupil premium allocations and conditions. Back to the Schools Insight homepage.