Healthy Start: who can get it and how much it's worth
Healthy Start puts £4.65 to £9.30 a week on a card for milk, fruit, veg and formula, plus free vitamins, for low-income families expecting a baby or with under-4s.
Healthy Start is the NHS scheme that helps families in England, Wales and Northern Ireland buy healthy food while they're expecting a baby or bringing up young children. If you qualify, you're sent a prepaid Healthy Start card with money added every 4 weeks, to spend on plain cow's milk, fruit, vegetables, pulses and first infant formula. The same card lets you collect free vitamins for yourself and your children. You may still hear it called Healthy Start vouchers, but the help now comes on this card.
The main route is through Universal Credit. You need to be more than 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under 4, and your family's take-home pay from work must be £408 a month or less. Pregnant under-18s can get it without any benefits, and there are separate routes if you get Pension Credit or can't claim public funds. In Scotland, Best Start Foods takes its place.
Who can get Healthy Start?
Everyone on Healthy Start is either more than 10 weeks pregnant or has at least one child under 4. Beyond that, it depends on your situation:
- On Universal Credit: your family's monthly take-home pay from work, also called earned income, must be £408 or less. If you live with a partner, that means both your earnings together, and a family with no earnings is within the limit too. You can apply online.
- On Pension Credit: you qualify if your Pension Credit includes the child addition. You apply by email or phone.
- Under 18 and pregnant: you don't need any benefits while you're pregnant, and you apply by email or phone. After the birth, you need a qualifying benefit to keep getting Healthy Start.
- Unable to claim public funds: if you're not a British citizen but have a British child under 4, your family earns £408 a month or less after tax, and you can't claim public funds because of your immigration status, or because you don't have one, you can ask for an application form by email. If your child's other parent lives with you and can claim public funds, they need to apply instead.
If you live in Scotland
Healthy Start isn't available in Scotland. Social Security Scotland's Best Start Foods does a similar job with a payment card you can use in shops and online. It pays £22.40 every 4 weeks during pregnancy, £44.80 for each child under 1 and £22.40 for each child aged 1 to 3, and you can apply from as soon as you know you're pregnant until your child turns 3. The same application form covers the Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment, which is £796.65 for a first child. mygov.scot explains who qualifies.
How much is Healthy Start worth?
The money goes onto your card every 4 weeks, and the weekly amount follows your pregnancy and each child's age. For one child, it doubles from £4.65 to £9.30 a week at birth, drops back to £4.65 at their first birthday and stops when they turn 4.
From birth to their fourth birthday, that adds up to just over £1,200 for one child: 52 weeks at £9.30, then 156 weeks at £4.65. If you're pregnant again or have more than one child under 4, the amounts are added together:
Your family | Each week | Every 4 weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Pregnant, with a 2-year-old | £9.30 | £37.20 |
| Baby under 1 and a 3-year-old | £13.95 | £55.80 |
| Two children aged 1 to 4 | £9.30 | £37.20 |
Healthy Start checks your eligibility with the benefits agencies every 4 weeks, and payments stop if those checks show you're no longer eligible. You then have 16 weeks to spend what's left before the card is closed, and anything still on it after that is taken back.
What can you buy with a Healthy Start card?
You can use the card in most shops that sell milk, fruit and vegetables and take Mastercard, including supermarkets, corner shops, chemists, markets and petrol stations. It's only meant for four kinds of food, and it's up to you to stick to them:
- Plain cow's milk: pasteurised, sterilised, long-life or UHT. Flavoured, coloured, evaporated, condensed, powdered and plant-based milks don't count.
- Fruit and vegetables: fresh, frozen or tinned, whole or chopped, loose or packaged, including fruit in juice and fruit or veg in water. Anything with added fat, salt, sugar or flavourings is out, such as chips, onion rings or tinned tomatoes with herbs, and so are juices, smoothies, fruit in syrup and pre-cooked fruit or veg.
- Pulses: fresh, dried or tinned lentils, beans, peas and chickpeas with nothing added, so kidney beans in chilli sauce don't count.
- Infant formula: first infant formula made from cow's milk and labelled as suitable from birth. Follow-on milks labelled from 6 months, or from 6 to 12 months, don't count.
Frozen and tinned fruit and veg count just as much as fresh, so you can keep plain options in the freezer or cupboard, which is handy once your baby starts solid food.
Paying with the card
Activate the card when it arrives. The first time you pay, you'll need your PIN; after that, you can use contactless for payments up to £45, or chip and PIN up to £75. If a contactless payment is declined, insert the card instead.
At the till, pay for the Healthy Start food with the card and everything else with cash or a bank card. Some shops put these through as separate transactions, and at self-checkouts you can only split the payment with cash. If you make a mistake when paying for a mixed shop, it won't affect your benefit payments.
You can't use the card online, outside the UK (including the Republic of Ireland), in a phone wallet, or to take out cash or get cashback. Check your balance before you shop, at a cashpoint or on 0118 338 5810, because you can only spend what's on the card. Keep your receipts, as Healthy Start can ask to see what you bought, and refunds go back onto the card.
Free Healthy Start vitamins and vitamin drops
Once you're on Healthy Start, you can also collect free vitamins. Even with a good diet, babies and young children may not get enough vitamins A and D, and during pregnancy and breastfeeding you may run short of folic acid and vitamins C and D.
- Vitamin tablets for you contain folic acid, vitamin C and vitamin D. You can get them while you're pregnant and until your baby's first birthday, as an 8-week supply of 56 tablets, one a day.
- Vitamin drops for your children contain vitamins A, C and D and are for children from birth until their fourth birthday. They come as an 8-week supply of 280 drops, 5 drops a day.
Breastfed babies can have the drops from birth. A baby who has 500ml (about a pint) or more of infant formula a day doesn't need them, because formula already has vitamins added. Don't take or give more than the daily dose. The tablets and drops contain no milk, egg, gluten, soya or peanut residues and are suitable for vegetarian and halal diets.
How you collect them depends on where you live:
- England and Wales: ask your midwife or health visitor where to collect them, and take your Healthy Start card with you. The Healthy Start website can also help you find local stockists in England and community pharmacy collection points in Wales.
- Northern Ireland: within 10 working days of being accepted, you'll get a letter or email explaining how to request them, and they're posted to you. If nothing arrives, call 0300 330 7010.
How to apply for a Healthy Start card
If you get Universal Credit, apply online through the NHS Healthy Start website. You'll need:
- your name, address and date of birth
- your National Insurance number
- your baby's due date, if you're pregnant
- your Universal Credit statement
The details must match your Universal Credit claim, so check your account first: your address and postcode should be up to date, and all your children should be named and verified on the claim.
If you get Pension Credit, or you're pregnant and under 18, apply by emailing healthy.start@nhsbsa.nhs.uk or calling 0300 330 7010 (8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, except public holidays). Under-18s need their due date, NHS number, National Insurance number and a copy of an official document, such as a birth certificate, passport, driving licence or immigration visa. If you can't claim public funds, email healthystartNRPF@nhsbsa.nhs.uk to ask for an application form.
Make one application for your household, covering your pregnancy and every child under 4 you're responsible for. Only one parent or carer should apply, and an application made during pregnancy has to be in the pregnant person's name. If you get pregnant again later, tell Healthy Start once you're past 10 weeks and they'll add it to your existing claim.
After your baby is born
Tell Healthy Start and Universal Credit as soon as you can after the birth, and within 12 weeks of your due date at the latest. Healthy Start can only pay for children who are named and verified on your Universal Credit claim. Payments for your baby start once they appear on your Universal Credit statement, which can take up to 8 weeks after they're verified.
If you got Healthy Start as a pregnant under-18 without benefits, you'll only keep it after the birth if you now get a qualifying benefit. Call 0300 330 7010, update your Universal Credit account, make sure your children are named and verified and make a new claim online. Otherwise, your payments stop 4 weeks after your due date.
While you're sorting out the paperwork for your new baby, remember to claim Child Benefit too.
Keeping your claim open
- Use the card at least once every 16 weeks. If you don't, your payments can be stopped and your claim closed, and any money left on the card is removed.
- Report changes, such as different benefits, a new address or contact details, a new pregnancy, or a child who's no longer in your care. If you think your payments are wrong, tell Healthy Start within 8 weeks.
- If your application is turned down, check that your details match your Universal Credit claim, your earned income is £408 or less and your children are named and verified. If you still think there's a problem, contact Healthy Start within 12 weeks of applying.
