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Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods
Last updated: 15 November 2019
You can get Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods:
if your child is the right age for a payment
whether you're in work or not, as long as you're on certain payments or benefits
as long as you're the parent of a child, or the main person looking after the child
If you can get more than one payment at the same time
You only need to fill in the Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods form once to apply for all the payments you can get now.
If you can get one payment now and another in the future, you'll need to fill in a new form each time you apply.
You can still get the Pregnancy and Baby Payment part of Best Start Grant for a baby that's stillborn or died after they were born. If you're paid when you're pregnant, and your baby is stillborn or dies later, you will not need to pay any money back. If you apply after a stillbirth or death, you can apply up to 6 months after the baby's birth date.
Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods payments
Best Start Grant is 3 cash payments. Each payment can only be paid once per child.
The 3 Best Start Grant payments are:
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.
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
Your payment for 1st twin
Your payment for 2nd twin
Extra payment for twins
Total
£600
£300
£300
£1200
If you apply for twins and have other children under 16
Your payment for 1st twin
Your payment for 2nd twin
Extra payment for twins
Total
£300
£300
£300
£900
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.
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:
Your child's date of birth
When you need to apply
Between 1 March 2014 and 28 February 2015
Between 3 June 2019 and 29 February 2020
Between 1 March 2015 and 29 February 2016
Between 1 June 2020 and 28 February 2021
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.
The Best Start Foods card
Best Start Foods is a prepaid card that you can use to buy healthy foods for children under 3. You can use the card in shops and online.
You can apply for Best Start Foods when you're pregnant, or any time up to your child turning 3 years old. This goes up to 4 years old for a child:
who's over 2 years old when you apply
that you also get Healthy Start Vouchers for
If you're getting Healthy Start Vouchers for a child you apply for, you'll be moved from Healthy Start Vouchers to Best Start Foods.
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
If your child was between 2 and 4 years old when you applied, and you were getting Healthy Start Vouchers for them, you'll be paid £17 every 4 weeks until they're 4 years old.
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.
What affects whether you can apply
If you're under 18, you do not need to be on any payments or benefits to apply for Best Start Grant or Best Start Foods.
If you're a parent over 18, you can apply whether you're in work or not, as long as you're getting one of these:
Universal Credit
Child Tax Credit
Working Tax Credit
Housing Benefit
Income Support
Pension Credit
Income-based Jobseekers Allowance (JSA)
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
You cannot get Best Start Grant or Best Start Foods if you only get Child Benefit. You must still be getting one of the benefits or payments from this list to be able to get Best Start Grant or Best Start Foods.
For Best Start Grant, we do not need to know about your income. For Best Start Foods, some of the benefits have an income limit.
If you're not getting any of these benefits or payments, but have applied for one, you can still apply for Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods. If you've already been paid the Sure Start Maternity Grant for a baby, you cannot be paid the Pregnancy and Baby Payment for the same baby.
You can only apply if you live in Scotland. If you live somewhere else in the UK, you can apply for the Sure Start Maternity Grant.
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:
If you're under 18, you do not need to be on any payments or benefits to get Best Start Grant.
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. For a child older than one, the rules are the same as they are for a parent
who's over 18.
If you're applying for the Early Learning Payment or the School Age Payment, you must apply yourself.
You can apply for the Pregnancy and Baby Payment in one of two ways:
apply yourself
someone else can apply for you as long as they get Child Benefit, Child Tax Credit, Universal Credit child payments or the child addition part of Pension Credit for you
If you're between 14 – 18 years old, you have the same choice when applying for Best Start Foods.
If you're under 14 and applying for Best Start Foods
If you're under 14, 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.
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 and your data
If you want to know more about how Social Security Scotland use your data, you can read the privacy notice about Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods.
Apply online now
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.