Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods

You can apply for the Pregnancy and Baby Payment from 24 weeks pregnant up to the day your baby is 6 months old. This goes up to 1 if you've taken over looking after a child, such as if you've adopted.

Your baby normally needs to be under 6 months old for you to be able to get the Pregnancy and Baby Payment. If you could not apply before your baby turned 6 months old due to the disruption caused by coronavirus (COVID-19), you should still apply - Social Security Scotland will still consider your form. This is the same if you took over the care of a child. You would normally have until the child turns 1 to apply for the Pregnancy and Baby Payment, but if you could not apply before your child turned 1 because of coronavirus, Social Security Scotland will still consider your form.

You can apply whether a child is your 1st or not, as long as you apply when your baby is the right age. If you can get the Pregnancy and Baby Payment for your 1st child, you'll be paid £600.

You'll be paid £300 for any child that comes after your 1st, such as your 2nd or 3rd child, or any child after these.

If you apply for twins and have no other children under 16

If you apply for twins and have other children under 16

If you have triplets, you'll be paid an extra £300 on top of what you get for twins. £1500 if you do not have any other children under 16, £1200 if you do.

Your first child is your oldest child under 16. This includes a stepchild, if you have one. It also includes any child you've taken looking after, such as if you've adopted.

You can apply when your child is aged between 2 years old and 3 years 6 months old.

Your baby normally needs to be between 2 years old and 3 years 6 months old for you to be able to get the Early Learning Payment. If you could not apply before then, due to the disruption caused by coronavirus (COVID-19), you should still apply - Social Security Scotland will still consider your form.

If you get the Early Learning Payment, you'll get £250 for each child you can get the payment for. You can spend this money on any of the things you need for your child at this age. This includes toys to help them learn or trips to new places.

When you need to apply for the School Age Payment depends on when your child was born:

You cannot apply outwith these dates.

If your child was born later than February 2016, you'll be able to apply after May 2021. You cannot apply for the School Age Payment for a child born before 1st March 2014.

If you get the School Age Payment, you'll get £250 for each child you can get the payment for.

The School Age Payment has not replaced the School Clothing Grant. The School Age Payment is a new payment and does not affect in any way payments of the School Clothing Grant. If you want to apply for both, you can.

You can apply for Best Start Foods when you're pregnant, or any time up to your child turning 3 years old.

The payments of Best Start Foods are:

• £17 every 4 weeks during pregnancy
• £34 every 4 weeks from your child being born up until they're a 1 year old
• £17 every 4 weeks between the ages of 1 and 3

You can find out more about how you can use your Best Start Foods card in shops.

Social Security Scotland look after Best Start Foods payments, but a business called allpay will look after your Best Start Foods card. This includes things like lost Best Start Foods cards and new cards.

The benefits you need to be on to get Best Start Food are the same as Best Start Grant, but some of the benefits have an income limit.

The benefits that have an income limit are:

• Universal Credit – if you or your partner have a job, your joint income from working must be less than £610 a month, after tax and National Insurance – Universal Credit payments are not counted as part of this
• Child Tax Credit, if you're not getting Working Tax Credit – you and your partner's joint income from working must be less than £16,190 per year
• Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit - your income from working must be less than £7,320 per year
• Housing Benefit – you and your partner's joint income from working must be less than £311 a week

If you're 18 or 19 and do not get any benefits or payments, you can still apply for Best Start Grant or Best Start Foods if your parent or carer gets one of these for you:

• Child Tax Credit
• Child Benefit
• Universal Credit child payments
• the child addition part of Pension Credit

To apply, you'll need to call our free helpline on 0800 182 2222 or download and fill in our paper form. You cannot apply online.

We've changed our phone service

You can still call us between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday but you'll not be able to speak to someone straight away. Instead, you can leave a message and we'll call you back.

If we do not reach you the first time we call back, we'll try again another 2 times before we stop.

If you haven't heard from us after 2 working days, please call again and leave another message.

Best Start Grant

If you're under 18, you do not need to be on any payments or benefits to get Best Start Grant.

Early Learning Payment or School Age Payment

If you're applying for the Early Learning Payment or the School Age Payment, you must apply yourself.

Pregnancy and Baby Payment

You can apply for the Pregnancy and Baby Payment yourself.

Someone else can apply for you as long as they are getting any of these for you:

• Child Benefit
• Child Tax Credit
• Universal Credit child payments
• the child addition part of Pension Credit

Best Start Foods

For Best Start Foods, you do not need to be on any payments or benefits if you're 18 and your child is under one. If your child is over one, the rules are the same as they are for a parent who's over 18.

If you're between 16 and 18 years old, you have the same choice when applying for Best Start Foods as you do for Pregnancy and Baby Payment (as explained above).

If you're under 16, pregnant and want to apply for Best Start Foods, you'll need to get your parent or carer to apply instead.

If your parent or carer applies for Best Start Foods, they'll need to either call our free helpline on 0800 182 2222 or download and fill in our paper form. They cannot apply online.

We've changed our phone service

You can still call us between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday, but you'll not be able to speak to someone straight away. Instead, you can leave a message and we'll call you back. When we do, it will show as an unknown number.

We'll call you back in:

• 3 working days if your message is about Best Start Grant, Best Start Foods or Young Carer Grant
• 2 working days if your message is about any other benefit

If we do not reach you the first time we call back, we'll try again another 2 times before we stop.

If you haven't heard from us after 3 working days, please call again and leave another message.

If you are calling to apply for a benefit

If you are calling to apply for a benefit, you can leave a message to tell us your name, address and the benefit you want to apply for.

We'll send you an application form in the post. You can return your application form to our freepost address.

You can apply if you're the main person looking after a child. This includes if you're:

• the child's birth mother
• living with the birth mother and the two of you are a couple, married or civil partners
• a single father

You can also apply if you've taken over looking after a child, such as if you've adopted or are a kinship carer.

How to confirm you're the main person looking after a child

To show you're the main person looking after a child, you must be getting one of these for the child:

• Child Tax Credit
• Child Benefit
• Universal Credit child payments
• child addition part of Pension Credit

If you do not get any of these, you need to have a legal order that shows you look after the child. The type of legal order you need to have includes things like:

• a Parental Order
• a Kinship Care Order
• an Adoption Order
• a Compulsory Supervision order
• a Residence Order
• a Permanence Order

You'll need:

• your name, date of birth and address
• if you have a partner, their name and date of birth
• your bank, credit union or building society account details - you can be paid the Pregnancy and Baby Payment in the same way you're paid for your other benefits if you do not have one of these accounts - if you want to request this call 0800 182 2222 (freephone, 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday)
• details of any children you have or care for

If we need you to send us a certificate or anything else, we'll tell you this when you're filling in your online form.

You should also give your National Insurance number when you apply. If you do not give your National Insurance number to Social Security Scotland it could cause a delay.

We've changed our phone service

You can still call us between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday, but you'll not be able to speak to someone straight away. Instead, you can leave a message and we'll call you back. When we do, it will show as an unknown number.

We'll call you back in:

• 3 working days if your message is about Best Start Grant, Best Start Foods or Young Carer Grant
• 2 working days if your message is about any other benefit

If we do not reach you the first time we call back, we'll try again another 2 times before we stop.

If you haven't heard from us after 3 working days, please call again and leave another message.

If you are calling to apply for a benefit

If you are calling to apply for a benefit, you can leave a message to tell us your name, address and the benefit you want to apply for.

We'll send you an application form in the post. You can return your application form to our freepost address.

Find out what you can do if you do not know your National Insurance number.

The 10 sections of the form should take about 10-20 minutes to complete.

If you need help, or you'd prefer to apply by phone, you can call 0800 182 2222.

We've changed our phone service

You can still call us between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday, but you'll not be able to speak to someone straight away. Instead, you can leave a message and we'll call you back. When we do, it will show as an unknown number.

We'll call you back in:

• 3 working days if your message is about Best Start Grant, Best Start Foods or Young Carer Grant
• 2 working days if your message is about any other benefit

If we do not reach you the first time we call back, we'll try again another 2 times before we stop.

If you haven't heard from us after 3 working days, please call again and leave another message.

If you are calling to apply for a benefit

If you are calling to apply for a benefit, you can leave a message to tell us your name, address and the benefit you want to apply for.

We'll send you an application form in the post. You can return your application form to our freepost address.

If you want to apply by post

You can also apply by downloading a paper form and posting it to Social Security Scotland.