Over 300,000 families could lose access to vital Healthy Start vouchers because of major flaws in the switch from paper coupons to Mastercard, the Mirror can reveal.
As the cost of living crisis deepens, the Department for Health has extended its £4.25 a week food voucher scheme for another year to support parents at risk of falling into poverty.
In doing so, it’s shifted from a paper voucher scheme to a digital bank card – meaning parents will get their payments automatically, and any remaining monies at the end of each week can be accumulated for future use.
In theory, the new system sounds a lot simpler, however The Mirror has heard from dozens of parents whose applications have been rejected due to faults in the new claims process.
The Healthy Start Facebook page alone has been flooded with complaints from parents saying their cards were declined in supermarkets, their applications were rejected and they were unable to reach anyone through the Department’s 55p a minute call centre.
The deadline to switch from paper vouchers to the new card system was yesterday (March 10).
Georgia King, 24, receives Healthy Start vouchers to help pay for essentials for her two-year-old son.
She stopped getting paper vouchers in October last year and was eventually issued a new card, which the Department for Health said was registered and activated and ready to use.
“But it failed to work in the supermarket,” she told The Mirror.
Ms King, who has dyslexia and dyscalculia, has since struggled to get through to the Department on the phone.
Her mum, Toria Hodgkiss, emailed the government on her behalf, but months later, her card is still not working.
“Currently Georgia and my grandson live with me. I am a single parent with an 11-year-old daughter who lost her dad last year. I am trying my best to support Georgia. She works 15 hours a week as a hairdresser and gets Universal Credit, but costs are high and we’re trying our best to stay on top of it all.
“The scheme is not fit for purpose, you can't get any help, Just generic automated responses which ultimately just adds to the frustration of a scheme that just doesn't work.”
Mum of twins, Kerry Baker, has spent weeks trying to apply for the new system. She’s now missed the deadline but is desperately hoping the issue will still be resolved.
The 35-year-old single mum gave up her job as a plumber due to childcare when her kids were born. She currently receives two £4.25 paper vouchers a week.
Ms Baker has been trying to transfer her paper vouchers over to the new card system for weeks, but cannot get through to the Department’s customer services.
“The issues vary from not being able to switch your vouchers to having to do a whole new application. That’s fine, but people have been knocked back because they already receive paper vouchers," she told The Mirror.
“There’s no option to close your current claim down to then reopen with the new card scheme.”
“There’s no answer through the phone lines which are supposed to be open 24/7 either.
“It will be much harder next month when prices rise, my rent has already gone up by £300.
“Being a single mum of twins, I cannot breastfeed, there's just too much to do. Without these vouchers I cannot afford special formula."
Stay at home mum, Sarah Cushing, 24, received £8.50 a week for her two kids under the paper system. She claims Universal Credit.
“I had a letter back in December mentioning that it's going to card from paper and that I would have to reapply to change over," she said.
“As soon as I got that letter I followed the guidance and reapplied – but was then told my application had been unsuccessful.
“I tried three more times and got the same result. I rang the Department and was told that I'm still entitled so I shouldn't have a problem. The asked me to send proof of what benefits and income I get, and said they would update their systems and sort it out.
“But it didn’t work. When I contacted them again I got no response.
“I was lucky that the paper vouchers was still running to this month so I managed but it did add to my anxiety and had me thinking about what I was going to do.”
Fresh analysis from charity Sustain shows that 338,656 families who are pregnant or have small children and are eligible for Healthy Start vouchers for fruit, veg and milk have not yet enrolled to digital cards, which they will need when the paper vouchers stop on March 31.
The last date to apply for the digital card was March 10.
Some public health teams have since stopped promoting it to families for fear they will be put off by all the difficulties with digitisation.
The Sustain analysis also shows that more than £63.5million in vouchers went unclaimed last year because of low awareness of the scheme.
A large coalition of charities, led by Sustain and The Food Foundation, and including Royal College of Midwives and Royal Society of Public Health, have written to Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Sajid Javid this week urging him to extend the paper vouchers while the digital scheme is fixed.
Sustain campaigner Sofia Parente said: “Every year millions of pounds of Healthy Start vouchers go unclaimed and families miss out on free fruit, vegetables and milk.
“We welcomed the digitisation of the service as it was supposed to make it easier to apply and use, as well as reduce stigma. But the opposite has happened.
“Eligible families are being rejected, cards are failing at tills and calls to the helpline go unanswered. The Government needs to extend the paper vouchers until the digital scheme is working, otherwise families exposed to increasing food prices will miss out”
Zoe McIntyre, of Children’s Right2Food, The Food Foundation said: “There is no doubt that digitisation of Healthy Start can bring many benefits, but it must be done well, and with a clear understanding of the circumstances of those it is targeting.
“So many organisations, retailers, and individuals – including Marcus Rashford – have made huge efforts to tackle the issue of low uptake of this Government scheme to make sure low-income young families struggling to afford a healthy diet can get the support they need.
“So it’s really heart-breaking to hear how many families have been hindered by the digital switchover, rather than helped by it. At this challenging time of rising food prices, rising cost of living, Government really needs to remedy these issues immediately.”
The analysis also shows that the average take up of the voucher scheme in England in 2021 was 54%.
A Department of Health and Social Care Spokesperson said: “We are committed to providing vulnerable families with the support they need through our Healthy Start scheme – with around 330,000 households across England, Wales and Northern Ireland benefitting from the scheme in January.
“The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) is leading the work to digitise the Healthy Start scheme to help families to more easily apply for, receive and use the benefits.
“We would encourage anyone who believes that they are eligible and has had an online application rejected to try again as there is now a fix is in place.”
