Benefits

All reception year schoolchildren in Wales will start receiving free meals from September this year, with pupils in year one and year two to get free meals by April 2023, the Welsh Government has announced. It's expected that all 200,000 primary school children in Wales will receive free school meals by 2024. 

Iceland has secured a further £1 million in funding to provide another 40,000 £30 food vouchers to certain pensioners struggling with the cost of living. The window to apply is already open and will close on Friday 16 September, so get in now if you can.

If you're on a low income and struggling with the cost of school uniform, you could get up to £200 to help in the form of a non-repayable grant. To help, we've searched through council websites to find which offer it – check below to see if you qualify and what you could get.

Several councils in England have either scrapped or cut back on their provision of summer holiday vouchers for children eligible for free school meals, according to a BBC investigation, but there is still some help out there for those affected by the cuts. 

Millions of low-income UK households will start to receive the first half of their £650 cost of living payment from TODAY. But be warned, there is a possibility some payments could be delayed. Here's what you need to know. 

Watch MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis interview the Chancellor of the Exchequer below. In the video, Martin puts his own, MSE users' and Martin's social media followers' questions to Rishi Sunak following today's announcement of a new cost of living support package.

More than 2.5 million people on legacy benefits will start to be moved over to universal credit from today in an automatic process that was previously halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Government's own figures show that the move could leave 900,000 people worse off – though many others will see their circumstances improved. Here's all you need to know.

Millions will see benefit payments, such as universal credit and child benefit, rise from today under an uplift for the new financial year. If your family income is under £30,000 and you're not in receipt of any state support - it's worth spending 10 minutes to check if you're due benefits.

Around 6,600 people who get tax credits, child benefit or guardian's allowance paid into a Post Office card account need to take action urgently as HMRC will stop making payments into these accounts after 5 April. If you have an alternative account already you must let HMRC know and if not you'll need to set one up.  

Low-income households eligible for the Government's Healthy Start vouchers have just a few days to apply for a prepaid card to avoid missing out on payments. The existing paper vouchers are being phased out this month and families and expectant mothers must switch to the new system to continue to get help with food and milk costs.