Almost 50,000 mums and children will get a £2 food coupon at Sainsbury's as the supermarket expands its Healthy Start support scheme.
The NHS Healthy Start scheme is meant to encourage a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies and young children under the age of four from low-income households.
It gives eligible pregnant women or families with a child between the age of one and four years old with £4.25 a week when buying milk, fruit or vegetables.
Families with a child under the age of one get £8.50 each week. Parents can also redeem the money against milk, formula for babies and vitamins.
Sainsbury's is topping up the £4.25 or £8.50 with vouchers worth £2 a week. However, until now the £2 top-up was only available to people in England.
Now Sainsbury's has extended the scheme to people in Wales and Northern Ireland.
The £2 top-up coupons are available to Sainsbury's customers using a Healthy Start card.
The Sainsbury’s top-up coupons mean families that use their Healthy Start card each week could get either £6.25 or £10.50 worth of healthy food a week.
The £2 top-up will last for six months, until April 11 2023.
Sainsbury’s first introduced the £2 top-up coupon in 2021 to help families during the February half term.
The coupon was then reintroduced last Christmas to provide extra help to those struggling over the festive period.
Ruth Cranston, director of corporate responsibility and sustainability at Sainsbury’s, said: “We are really pleased we can extend our £2 top-up for the NHS Healthy Start scheme to eligible customers in Wales and Northern Ireland and hope the additional coupon will provide some relief to many people over the coming months."
Who is eligible for Healthy Start?
Those that claim the following benefits could be entitled to Healthy Start credit:
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Child Tax Credit (only if your family’s annual income is £16,190 or less)
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Income Support
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Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
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Pension Credit (which includes the child addition)
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Universal Credit (only if your family’s take-home pay is £408 or less per month from employment)
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Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (but only if you are over 10 weeks pregnant)
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Working Tax Credit run-on (this is the Working Tax Credit you receive in the 4 weeks immediately after you have stopped working for 16 hours or more per week)
Or, if you’re under 18 and more than 10 weeks pregnant, you’ll get Healthy Start money until your baby is born regardless of whether you claim benefits or not.
Families in Scotland aren't eligible for Healthy Start and must apply for help through Best Start Foods instead.
Earlier this year the Healthy Start scheme switched from paper vouchers to digital payments via MasterCard, but parents were told they needed to reapply to continue receiving the support.
However, after doing so, many were told they were ineligible for the scheme . Others were sent vouchers that simply did not work at the checkouts.
Back in March, the Healthy Start Facebook page had been flooded with complaints from parents saying their cards were being declined in supermarkets and their applications rejected.
