Best Start Foods

What is Best Start Foods

Best Start Foods is a Scottish benefit for families on low incomes. The benefit is paid to pregnant women or their partners and families who have children aged up to 3 years old.

It is paid as credit onto a pre-loaded payment card which you can use to buy certain foods.

There are 2 rates of payment, either £4.50 a week or £9.00 a week. The amount you get depends on:

• whether you or your partner are pregnant
• how old your child is.

You get a payment for each child aged under 3.

You can apply to Social Security Scotland for Best Start Foods.

Best Start Foods won't affect any of your other benefits.

Who can get Best Start Foods

 You can get Best Start Foods if:

• you meet the rules about living in Scotland
• you or your partner receive certain benefits
• you or your partner are pregnant, or are responsible for a child aged under 3.
  

If you or your partner are under 18 and pregnant, or responsible for a child aged under 1, then you do not need to be getting benefits to be eligible.

If you or your partner are aged 18 or 19 and receive no benefits but are still in education or training, someone else who is responsible for you needs to be getting 1 of the benefits, such as a parent or carer.

Rules about living in Scotland 

In most cases, you will be able to get Best Start Foods if you normally live in Scotland and you meet the other conditions for getting the benefit. 

You usually need to be getting certain benefits in order to be eligible for Best Start Foods.

If you're not a UK citizen or if you’re a UK citizen who has been living abroad you might not be able to get any of these benefits. So you might not be able to get Best Start Foods, unless you or your partner are under 18 and pregnant or responsible for a child under 1.

Get advice if you’re not sure whether you can get Best Start Foods because of residence issues. Read our page about how to get immigration advice. 

Which benefits do you need to be getting

You or your partner usually need to get 1 of the following benefits: 

• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit – where your income at the time of the award was decided to be less than £17,005 per year
• Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit – where your income at the time of the award was decided to be less than £7,920 or you are being treated as being in full-time paid work 
• Housing Benefit – where your income for housing benefit was calculated as being less than £328 per week
• Universal Credit – where your earned income is £660 or less for the most recent assessment period or the 1 before that. The £660 limit applies to both single claims for UC and for joint claimants.

You don't have to be getting 1 of these benefits if you are under 18 or you are aged 18 or 19, still in education or training and your parent or carer gets 1 of these benefits.

If you've applied for 1 of these benefits but not had a decision yet, you can still apply to Best Start Foods. You won't get a decision about whether you can get Best Start Foods, until you get a decision about the other benefit. 

How much is the Best Start Foods

Best Start Foods is paid at different rates depending on whether you or your partner are pregnant or how old your child is.

If you or your partner are pregnant, you'll get £4.50 a week until the child is born.

Once the child is born, you'll get £9.00 a week until they reach the age of 1. After this you'll get £4.50 a week until they reach the age of 3.

If you have more than 1 child, you'll get payments for each child. There is no limit on the number of children that you can get Best Start payments for.

If you were getting Best Start Foods when you or your partner were pregnant, you should tell Social Security Scotland about your child’s birth within 4 months. If you do this, you’ll get Best Start Foods backdated to the date the child was born.

Best Start Foods is provided as credit on a payment card which can be used in any shop that sells food. It can only be used to buy certain foods.

What can a Best Start Foods payment card be used for 

Best Start Foods payment card can be used to pay for: 

• milk – includes long life, pasteurised or ultra-heat treated milk, but not milk with any chemicals, vitamins, flavours or colours added or removed
• first infant formula milk – but not follow on formula milk
• fruit and vegetables – can be fresh, frozen or tinned but can't have any fat, salt, sugar, flavouring or any other ingredient added
• pulses – can be fresh, dried or tinned but can’t have any fat, salt, sugar, flavouring or other ingredient added
• eggs – fresh eggs only.

There is more information about how to use the Best Start Foods payment card on mygov.scot, including how to use it in shops or online and how to check your Best Start Foods balance.

How to apply for Best Start Foods

 You can apply:

• online – on the Social Security Scotland website
• by phone – by phoning 0800 182 2222, 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday
• by post – download an application form from mygov.scot or phone Social Security Scotland and ask for one to be posted to you.

The application process for Best Start Foods is the same as for the Best Start Grant.

The Best Start Grant is a package of 3 payments which low-income families might qualify for at different points in their children's lives:

• the Pregnancy and Baby Payment - for someone who is over 24 weeks pregnant or has a baby aged up to 6 months
• the Early Learning Payment - for someone who has a child aged between 2 and 3 and a half
• the School Age Payment - for someone with a child who is school-starting age.

You only need to apply once for the Best Start Grant and for the Best Start Foods. The 1 application is used for both benefits.

Read more about applying for the Best Start Grant.

You can also fill in a form to authorise someone to speak to Social Security Scotland on your behalf. This might be helpful if you feel unable to find the information you need or understand things about your application. You can download a third-party authorisation form on mygov.scot.

Challenging a Best Start Foods decision

If you don't agree with a decision about Best Start Foods, you can phone Social Security Scotland to ask it to look again at the decision. You must do this within 31 days of the date that you found about the decision not to give you Best Start Food payments.

Social Security Scotland must then review its decision within 16 working days.

There is no right of appeal if you still don't agree with the review decision.

If you're paid too much Best Start Foods

If you're paid too much Best Start Foods, Social Security Scotland will decide if you have to pay the money back. It will look at the details of why you were overpaid when it makes its decision.

If you know that you're not entitled to Best Start Foods, perhaps because you're not getting a qualifying benefit any more, you must tell Social Security Scotland as soon as possible. If you don't, you could be committing a criminal offence. If found guilty, you could be sent to prison or given a fine. 

If your circumstances change 

You’ll need to tell Social Security Scotland if your circumstances change. This includes if:

• your other benefits stop, like Universal Credit
• your personal details change, like your name or address.

Find out more and check how to report a change of circumstances on mygov.scot.