Healthy Start Card: Who Can Get It, How Much, How to Use It

You must be more than 10 weeks pregnant or have at least one child under 4. You also need one of these:

• ✓Yes: Universal Credit, with a family take-home pay from employment of £408 a month or less (you apply online)
• ✓Yes: Pension Credit that includes the child addition (you apply by email or phone)

If you are under 18 and more than 10 weeks pregnant, you can apply by email or phone without getting any qualifying benefit, and you qualify until your baby is born. After the birth you only keep Healthy Start if you get a qualifying benefit, so call Healthy Start, update your Universal Credit account, make sure your children are named and verified on your claim, and reapply online. If you do not, your payment stops 4 weeks after your baby's due date.

Money is added to your card every 4 weeks. Each 4-week top-up is four times the weekly amount:

For example, if you are pregnant and have a child aged between 1 and 4, you get £4.65 + £4.65 = £9.30 a week, which is £37.20 every 4 weeks.

Your money stops when your child is 4, or if you no longer get a benefit that makes you eligible. Healthy Start checks your eligibility with the benefits agencies every 4 weeks. If you stop qualifying, you have 16 weeks to spend what is left on the card before it is closed, and any money still on it after that is reclaimed.

You can use the card to buy:

• ✓Yes: plain cow's milk that is pasteurised, sterilised, long-life or UHT
• ✓Yes: fruit and vegetables that are fresh, frozen or tinned, whole or chopped, packaged or loose, including fruit in fruit juice and fruit or vegetables in water
• ✓Yes: fresh, dried or tinned pulses, such as lentils, beans, peas and chickpeas
• ✓Yes: infant formula made from cow's milk and labelled as suitable from birth

You should not use it for:

• ✗No: fruit, vegetables or pulses with added fat, salt, sugar or flavourings, such as kidney beans in chilli sauce
• ✗No: juiced or pre-cooked fruit and vegetables, fruit in syrup or smoothies
• ✗No: flavoured, coloured, evaporated, condensed or plant-based milk
• ✗No: follow-on formula or milk

You can use your card in most places that sell milk, infant formula, fruit and vegetables, including supermarkets, convenience stores, pharmacies, markets and petrol stations, as long as they display the Mastercard symbol. Contactless works for payments up to £45 in a single transaction, and chip and PIN for payments up to £75.

You can split a payment between your Healthy Start card and your normal bank card or cash. At self-checkout machines you can only split it with cash. If you need a refund, take the items, the receipt and your card back to the shop, and the money goes back on the card.

You can get Healthy Start vitamin tablets while you are pregnant and until your baby's first birthday, and vitamin drops for your children from birth until their fourth birthday. If your child has 500ml or more of formula a day, they do not need Healthy Start vitamins.

In England and Wales, ask your midwife or health visitor where to get your free vitamins, and show your Healthy Start card when you collect them. In Northern Ireland, you get a letter or email explaining how to request them, and the Business Services Organisation posts them to you.

For a new baby, payments start once your child has been verified and appears on your Universal Credit statement, which can take up to 8 weeks after verification. Make sure your child is verified within 12 weeks of the due date to get the right amount.

Our guides to Maternity Allowance and Child Benefit cover other money when you have a baby, and our benefits guides list the rest.

Call 0118 338 5810 to activate your card, get your PIN, check your balance or report the card lost, damaged or stolen. This line is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To activate the card you need the card, your date of birth and the client ID at the top of the letter that came with it. You can also check your balance at a cashpoint using your PIN.

Any transactions made before you report a card lost or stolen are charged to your account, so report it straight away. For anything else, the Healthy Start helpline is 0300 330 7010.

Wales and Northern Ireland. If you live in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, you apply for Healthy Start. In Northern Ireland, your free vitamins come by post, as set out above.

Scotland. If you live in Scotland, you can get help from Best Start Foods instead, paid by Social Security Scotland every 4 weeks on a prepaid card you can use in shops and online:

Normally you or your partner need to get Universal Credit, Housing Benefit, Income Support, Pension Credit, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance or income-related Employment and Support Allowance. If you are under 18, you do not need to get any benefit. Social Security Scotland's free phone line is 0800 182 2222, 8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.