The Healthy Start card: money for milk and vegetables in pregnancy and under-fours

If you are more than 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under four, the NHS may give you a prepaid card that is topped up every four weeks with money for milk, fruit and vegetables. The scheme is Healthy Start, the rate is £4.65 or £9.30 a week, and free vitamins come with it. Here is who qualifies, how to apply, and what the card will not buy.

Who can get a Healthy Start card?

The scheme is for people more than 10 weeks pregnant, or with at least one child under four, who receive a qualifying benefit.

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You apply online if you get Universal Credit and your family's monthly take-home pay from employment is £408 or less. You apply by email or phone if you get Pension Credit that includes the child addition. There is a separate route for pregnant under-18s: no benefit is needed at all, the entitlement runs until the baby is born, and you cannot apply online — only by email or phone.

Scotland runs a different scheme, Best Start Foods.

How much money goes on the card?

Payments are added every four weeks: £4.65 for each week of pregnancy from the 10th week; £9.30 a week for a child from birth to one; £4.65 a week for a child aged one to four. They stop when your child turns four, or if you stop receiving the qualifying benefit.

Eligibility is rechecked against benefits records every four weeks. If you stop qualifying, you have 16 weeks to spend what is left on the card; anything unspent after that is reclaimed.

How do you apply, and when does the card arrive?

For an online application you need your name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number, your baby's due date if you are pregnant, and your Universal Credit statement. The details must match those on your Universal Credit claim.

Check your Universal Credit account first: your address and postcode, and that every child is named and verified on the claim. Payments start once the child is verified, and that can take up to eight weeks. To get the right amount, make sure your child is verified within 12 weeks of the estimated due date.

The card arrives by post within 10 working days of a successful application, longer at busy times, with your first payment already on it. The phone line for applications is 0300 330 7010, Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm except public holidays.

How do you activate the card and get the PIN?

Call 0118 338 5810, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To activate you need the card itself, your date of birth and the client ID at the top of the letter that came with it. The same number gives you your PIN, your balance, and reports a lost, damaged or stolen card. For a balance or a PIN reminder you will also need the six-digit telephone access code you chose at activation.

If you gave neither an email address nor a phone number when applying, the PIN is posted two days after the card. You can also check the balance at a cashpoint. Any transaction made before you report the card lost is charged to your account.

What can you buy, and what is excluded?

Allowed: plain cow's milk — pasteurised, sterilised, long-life or UHT; first-stage infant formula made from cow's milk and labelled suitable from birth; fresh, frozen or tinned fruit and vegetables, whole or chopped, loose or packaged; fruit in fruit juice and vegetables in water; and fresh, dried or tinned pulses.

Not allowed: anything with added fat, salt, sugar or flavourings — tinned tomatoes with herbs, kidney beans in chilli sauce, chips, onion rings; juiced or pre-cooked items; smoothies; fruit in syrup; milk that is flavoured, coloured, evaporated, condensed, plant-based or powdered (unless it is stage-one formula); and follow-on formula labelled "from 6 months".

Where is the card accepted, and what are the limits?

It works in most places selling milk, formula, fruit and vegetables: supermarkets, convenience stores, pharmacies, markets, dairy shops, newsagents, butchers and petrol stations. The one condition is a Mastercard symbol, usually on the door or at the till. A fast-food outlet will decline it.

Contactless works up to £45 in a single transaction, Chip and PIN up to £75. After a few contactless payments the card may ask for the PIN for security — if it is declined, insert it into the reader. You cannot use the card online, outside the UK including the Republic of Ireland, in a phone wallet app, to withdraw cash, or to get cashback.

Which vitamins come with it?

Everyone on the scheme is entitled to free Healthy Start vitamins. Tablets are for people pregnant or breastfeeding, up to the baby's first birthday: folic acid, vitamin C and vitamin D. Drops are for children from birth to their fourth birthday: vitamins A, C and D. A child having 500ml or more of formula a day does not need them.

Each pack is an eight-week supply: 56 tablets at one a day, or 280 drops at five a day. Do not exceed the dose. In England and Wales, ask your midwife or health visitor where to collect them, and show your Healthy Start card. The vitamins contain no milk, egg, gluten, soya or peanut residues and are suitable for vegetarian and halal diets.