Best Start Foods pays £6.9 million to clients in its first year

New figures have been published today on Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods. In total, we paid £38.1 million to clients up to the end of August this year.

We now have one full year of Best Start Foods data and can confirm that we have paid out £6.9 million to clients in the first year of Best Start Foods.

Since launching Best Start Foods, we have paid out £6.9 million to clients in the first year.

During this period we received 204,130 applications for Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods. It is estimated that 42% of these were for Best Start Foods, 34% for Pregnancy and Baby Payment, 33% for Early Learning Payment and 24% for School Age Payment. The full report is available on our website.

The Best Start Grant includes three types of payment: Pregnancy and Baby Payment (applications taken from 10 December 2018), Early Learning Payment (applications taken from 29 April 2019) and School Age Payment (applications taken from 3 June 2019).

Best Start Foods is a payment that replaces the UK Government’s Healthy Start Vouchers in Scotland. Best Start Foods replaced Healthy Start Vouchers for new applications in Scotland from 12 August 2019. This was a phased roll out and we contacted people asking them to make the switch to Best Start Foods.

Stakeholders can access more information and resources on Best Start Grant or Best Start Foods. People can check eligibility and apply for these benefits on the mygov.scot website.