Low-income applications
This route is where you can apply for a bus pass if you qualify under the home to school transport policy. To qualify the student must be from a low-income household. For more information about transport to school or college, please see our 2024 to 2025 transport policy.
To apply for assistance with transport to school, you'll need to provide documentation to prove that the student is from a low-income background. These may include:
- scanned Universal Credit proof
- scanned Income Support proof
- digital photograph of the student - if applying for a bus pass
- the parent, guardian or carer's National Insurance number
- the student's National Insurance number - if they live independently
You'll be able to upload these documents when you complete the online form.
In addition, there are a few questions which require longer answers. You may want to compose your answers to these questions prior to completing the form. You can then 'copy and paste' your text into this form once you're ready to send it. There is a 500 character limit for each of these questions so please make sure your answers are an appropriate length.
The following question will be asked:
- how does the student travel when not at school or their educational setting?
Please note: our system will 'time out' after 10 minutes for each form page, so you may need to gather these documents and answers before starting this form. Read more about uploading supporting documents.
Apply for help with transport to school or college
Definition of 'low income'
By 'low income' we mean parents/carers:
- whose children are entitled to free school meals on the basis of their low income, or
- who are in receipt of their maximum level of Working Tax Credit*
*This means that there is no reduction in Working Tax Credit due to income as shown on your tax credit notice - TC602.