Welfare and financial support

Child benefit

Find out more about child benefit and how it works on the Gov.UK website.

Healthy Start  

If you’re more than ten weeks pregnant or have a child under four, you may be entitled to get help to buy healthy food and milk. 

If you’re eligible, you’ll be sent a Healthy Start card with money on it that you can use in some UK shops. We’ll add your benefit onto this card every four weeks. 

You can use your card to buy: 

  • Plain liquid cow’s milk 

  • Fresh, frozen, and tinned fruit and vegetables 

  • Fresh, dried, and tinned pulses 

  • Infant formula milk based on cow’s milk 

You can also use your card to collect: 

  • Healthy Start vitamins – these support you during pregnancy and breastfeeding 

  • Vitamin drops for babies and young children – these are suitable from birth to four years old 

Visit the Healthy Start website for more information, or ask your midwife or health visitor.


SEND

Benefits and leave

For information on benefits and leave that you and your partner are entitled to when you're pregnant, visit the NHS website and the 'Benefits available during pregnancy' section of the Gov.UK website.

General cost of living help can be found in our cost of living section.

Free prescriptions and dental care

You're entitled to free NHS prescriptions and NHS dental care (check-ups and treatment) during pregnancy and for 12 months after giving birth. Your child can also have free prescriptions and NHS dental care until they're at least 16 years old.

You can use the NHS website to check if you can get free prescriptions.

To find a NHS dentist near you visit the NHS's find a dentist page.