Best Start Foods
Cost of living crisis: find out what help is available
We have replaced the UK Government’s Healthy Start Voucher scheme with Best Start Foods in Scotland. Best Start Foods has removed the stigma associated with the Healthy Start Voucher’s paper voucher system by using a pre-loaded payment card that works like a regular bank card. Compared with Healthy Start Vouchers, Best Start Foods offers more choice by including a wider range of healthy foods for families to purchase.
Best Start Foods provides pregnant women and families with children under the age of three, who receive certain benefits under a certain amount. The Best Start Foods payments are:
- £21.20 every 4 weeks during pregnancy – the payment amount is per pregnancy
- £42.40 every 4 weeks from birth until a child is one year old
- £21.20 every 4 weeks between the ages of one and three years of age
Further details can be found on mygov.scot.
Policy position papers
We have published a series of social security policy papers setting out our position on the development of the devolved benefits in Scotland.