{"id":1665,"date":"2024-06-13T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalfirstgp.com\/base-pcn\/2024\/06\/13\/the-nhs-healthy-start-scheme\/"},"modified":"2025-04-11T11:16:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T10:16:53","slug":"the-nhs-healthy-start-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalfirstgp.com\/base-pcn\/2024\/06\/13\/the-nhs-healthy-start-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"The NHS Healthy Start scheme\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The NHS Healthy Start scheme&nbsp;<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>The NHS Healthy Start scheme helps young families on low incomes to buy healthy food and milk.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You could be eligible for NHS Healthy Start if you\u2019re more than 10 weeks pregnant or have children under four and receive certain benefits.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once on the scheme, you\u2019ll receive a prepaid card, which you can use to buy fruit, vegetables, pulses, milk and infant formula.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch the videos or read on below for more information on the scheme, who is eligible, and how to apply. The information is also available in an <a href=\"http:\/\/digitalfirstgp.combase-pcn\/Resources\/easy-read-nhs-healthy-start\">easy-read guide to NHS Healthy Start.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"yt-container\" class=\"ytpp-main\">\n        <a name=\"ytplayer\" class=\"f\"><iframe name=\"ytpl-frame\" id=\"ytpl-frame\" type=\"text\/html\" rel=\"RUTh7xAZ8hU\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RUTh7xAZ8hU?rel=0&hd=1&version=3&iv_load_policy=3&showinfo=0&controls=0&origin=https:\/\/digitalfirstgp.com\/base-pcn\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" loading=\"lazy\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe><\/a>\n        <div id=\"ytpp-playlist-container\" class=\"ytpp-playlist-container\" data-playlist=\"RUTh7xAZ8hU ,T47U81-86Aw, _67Ig68sSXU, rSrg-x4zkoU, DbwgC9Qu8c0\"><div id=\"ytplayer_div2\"><\/div><\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who can apply and how<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyone aged under 18 and pregnant can apply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People over 18 must be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>At least 10 weeks pregnant<\/li><li>Or have at least one child under 4<\/li><li>And getting one of these benefits:<ul><li>Child Tax Credit (if your family income is \u00a316,190 or less)<\/li><li>Income Support<\/li><li>Income-based Jobseeker&#8217;s Allowance<\/li><li>Pension credit (with the child addition)<\/li><li>Universal Credit (if you family&#8217;s take-home page is \u00a3408 or less a month)<\/li><li>Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and over 10 weeks pregnant<\/li><li>You or your partner get Working Tax Credit run-on only<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Applying online should only take about 5 minutes. You only need your National Insurance number and your due date, or children&#8217;s details and date of birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-16018d1d wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-text-color has-background\" href=\"http:\/\/www.healthystart.nhs.uk\" style=\"background-color:#005eb8\">Apply at www.<strong>healthystart.nhs.uk&nbsp;<\/strong> <\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you receive your prepaid card in the post, you need to <strong>activate it by calling 0118 338 5810<\/strong> and create a pin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What you can buy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>With NHS Healthy Start, you can buy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Cow&#8217;s milk<\/li><li>Fresh, frozen or tinned fruit and vegetables<\/li><li>Infant formula milk<\/li><li>Fresh, dried and tinned pulses (lentils, chickpeas etc)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also get free <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthystart.nhs.uk\/getting-vitamins\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.healthystart.nhs.uk\/getting-vitamins\/\">Healthy Start vitamins<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Payments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When you&#8217;ve been accepted to the scheme, you will get:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>\u00a34.25 each week of pregnancy (from week 10 onward)<\/li><li>\u00a38.50 each week from birth to one year old<\/li><li>\u00a34.25 each week for children between one and four years old.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The card will be topped up with payments every four weeks, and you can use it in most places that sell healthy food and accept Mastercard\u00ae payments.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Find out if you\u2019re eligible for NHS Healthy Start and apply online now at <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.healthystart.nhs.uk\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"www.healthystart.nhs.uk\">www.healthystart.nhs.uk&nbsp;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-16018d1d wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-text-color has-background\" href=\"http:\/\/www.healthystart.nhs.uk\" style=\"background-color:#005eb8\">Apply at www.<strong>healthystart.nhs.uk&nbsp;<\/strong> <\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NHS Healthy Start scheme&nbsp; The NHS Healthy Start scheme helps young families on low incomes to buy healthy food and milk.&nbsp; You could be eligible for NHS Healthy Start if you\u2019re more than 10 weeks pregnant or have children under four and receive certain benefits.&nbsp; Once on the scheme, you\u2019ll receive a prepaid card, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalfirstgp.com\/base-pcn\/2024\/06\/13\/the-nhs-healthy-start-scheme\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[202,285,269,203,161],"class_list":["post-1665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-childrens-health","tag-nhs-healthy-start","tag-children","tag-parents","tag-healthy-eating"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-28 19:05:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalfirstgp.com\/base-pcn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalfirstgp.com\/base-pcn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalfirstgp.com\/base-pcn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalfirstgp.com\/base-pcn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalfirstgp.com\/base-pcn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/digitalfirstgp.com\/base-pcn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1951,"href":"https:\/\/digitalfirstgp.com\/base-pcn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665\/revisions\/1951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalfirstgp.com\/base-pcn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalfirstgp.com\/base-pcn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalfirstgp.com\/base-pcn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalfirstgp.com\/base-pcn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}