Healthy Start Vouchers are vouchers you can use to buy milk, infant formula milk, fruit, vegetables and pulses. They can also be used to buy vitamins or vitamin drops. Good nutrition in pregnancy and the early years is vital for health and development of mums and children, so we’ve summarised the main information here, including a multi-language information leaflet, eligibility, and some reasons why applications may not succeed (and what to do if that happens).
Who’s eligible to receive vouchers?
You’ll qualify for the Healthy Start scheme if you’re at least 10 weeks pregnant or you have at least one child that’s under 4, and are receiving any of the following:
- Child Tax Credit (only if your family’s annual income is £16,190 or less)
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Pension Credit (which includes the child addition)
- Universal Credit (only if your family’s take-home pay is £408 or less per month from employment)
You will also be eligible for Healthy Start if:
- you’re under 18 and pregnant, even if you are not claiming any benefits
- you claim income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and are over 10 weeks pregnant
- you, your partner or your carer get Working Tax Credit run-on only after you have reported you’re working 16 hours or less per week
To find out if your family earns £408 or less per month from employment whilst claiming Universal Credit, look at your ‘take-home pay for this period’ on your monthly Universal Credit award notice.
How to Apply
You can apply online on the NHS website. To apply, you will need your:
- name
- address
- date of birth
- National Insurance number
- baby’s due date (if you’re pregnant)
- benefit award letter if you’re over 18 (you must enter the same information that’s on this letter)
Full information about the vouchers and application process can be found here: https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/
Reasons why an application may be unsuccessful and suggested steps to take when this happens.
- Benefit award letter information
You will need your benefit award letter to refer to hand when providing your details. As the data is matched with DWP or HMRC, the NHS require the exact details for this to lead to a successful claim. It may be best to double check you have their letter in front of them when you’re completing the application, and enter infomration exactly as it appears on your letter. For example, using a different surname than the one on your award letter, may result in your data not being matched and an unsuccessful application.
- Details up to date with DWP/HMRC
You may have provided details which haven’t yet been updated with your benefit agency, for example, if you have moved house recently. If you have provided your new address, but this hasn;t yet been updated with the benefit agency, this could cause a problem. If there have been any recent changes to your address or other details, it’s worth checking with your benefit agency that their details are updated before you apply.
- Meeting the eligibility criteria
Another common reason why you might not be successful is that you don’t meet the eligibility criteria, or that you no longer do, if you previously received paper vouchers. You can use the Healthy Start Eligibility Checker which will help you check if you are eligible to apply for the scheme.
If the above has all been met, and you are still having issues applying to the scheme, you can contact the helpline to complete an assissted application on: 0300 330 7010
The leaflet below (thanks to Lambeth Council) includes Healthy Start information in the following languages: Amharic, Arabic, Chinese, French, Italian, Polis, Portuguese, Spanish, Somali and Tigrinya.