1. Who is eligible for the fee waiver?
For the 2025 cycle:
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students who are currently enrolled at school or college and have been in receipt of government-funded free school meals at some point during the last six years (i.e. during their secondary education) up until the end of their final year, will be eligible to have the application fee waived
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students applying from the independent school sector can indicate that their financial circumstances would have made them eligible for government-funded free school meals in the past six years. This can be verified by teachers/advisers from the student’s previous school or college, a letter of confirmation from the local authority, or using the Bursary Assessment Associates contextualised data service
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students who are not currently enrolled at a school or college, but are applying through a registered centre and can demonstrate to the centre they have been in receipt of government-funded free school meals at some point during the last six years, are eligible to have the application fee waived
2. What do the payment screens look like for a student?
Our 
slide deck (13.57 MB) has a step-by-step guide of the process for a student from slide 4.
3. How do I set up my centre to make sure students see the fee waiver option?
Our slide deck (13.57 MB) has a step-by-step guide of the process for a centre from slide 20.
4. How can we check if a student’s eligible for the waiver if they’ve come to us from a different school?
Your school/college must be able to confirm a student has been in receipt of free school meals in order to waive the application fee.
If this information is not available through your school/college information system, the student will need to provide evidence to you. Examples of this could include confirmation through their previous school or college, or a letter of confirmation from the local authority.
5. How do I use the FSM filter in the adviser portal to find out how my students have chosen to pay for their applications?
Check from slide 32 of our slide deck (13.57 MB) for step-by-step instructions on how to use the FSM filter in the adviser portal:
Further information
You can find out more in our Free school meals application fee waiver guide.