School dinner payment app makes huge u-turn over £10 refund fee after going bust
SCHOOL dinner payment app sQuid has backed down after trying to charge parents a £10 withdrawal fee.
SQuid, the company offering cashless payments for school meals, trips and other expenses, has agreed to stop charging parents the fee to get their own money back.
Bewildered parents noticed the charge hitting accounts when the firm decided announced it would be withdrawing its services from the UK from March 14, 2025.
In the past, sQuid offered prepaid accounts and cards that parents could top up online, with children using them to pay for things like school lunches.
Recently, MoneySavingExpert.com got reports from parents who were shocked to hear they’d be hit with a £10 admin fee to get their balance refunded.
If their balance was under £10, they were told they wouldn’t get a refund at all.
Now, sQuid has agreed to either scrap or reduce the £10 fee.
As reported by the BBC on March 29, the company said it would work with schools to refund parents for free following a review of its refund policy.
If it’s not possible to do that, the £10 fee will drop to £2.50.
If you’ve already paid the £10, you’ll get £7.50 back.
You should get your refund by the start of next term, which means in the next three weeks for most families.
If you don’t hear anything, you can contact sQuid through its online form or email at customerservice@squidcard.com.
Why are parents being charged?
The issue came up because sQuid’s terms and conditions said they could charge a £10 admin fee for refunds when a parent cancels their account.
At the time, Adam Smith, co-founder and CEO of Squid, told Guardian Money: “We run a business and we have costs. We are leaving the market because we cannot make money. We are unsustainable and we’re having… a very orderly exit.
“We have a set of terms and conditions and we’re absolutely correct and entitled to exercise our terms and conditions.”
He added the “vast majority” of accounts had no money left in them.
But since it was sQuid’s decision to pull out of the UK, many parents felt the fee was unfair and possibly even illegal under consumer protection laws.
The Sun has reached out to sQuid for further comment.
Are you missing out on free school meals?
Recent findings show that hundreds of thousands of children in England are missing out on free school meals.
Analysis by Policy in Practice, based on Government data, reveals that over 471,000 eligible children are not receiving the meals because their parents or carers haven’t applied.
As a result, these families are losing out on an average of more than £490 a year in support.
Some 1.75million school-age children receive free lunches worth an average of £2.58 per day.
Read here to learn more information which can help you understand if you qualify.
Are you missing out on benefits?
YOU can use a benefits calculator to help check that you are not missing out on money you are entitled to
Charity Turn2Us’ benefits calculator works out what you could get.
Entitledto’s free calculator determines whether you qualify for various benefits, tax credit and Universal Credit.
MoneySavingExpert.com and charity StepChange both have benefits tools powered by Entitledto’s data.
You can use Policy in Practice’s calculator to determine which benefits you could receive and how much cash you’ll have left over each month after paying for housing costs.
Your exact entitlement will only be clear when you make a claim, but calculators can indicate what you might be eligible for.
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