Amendment regulations widen Best Start Foods eligibility

Amendment regulations to Best Start Foods came into force on 26 February 2024, changing which benefits qualify a household for the payment and how the payment is calculated. The Welfare Foods (Best Start Foods) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2023 were made on 5 December 2023 and laid before the Scottish Parliament on 7 December 2023¹.

The regulations removed the income thresholds that applied to certain forms of assistance and added Working Tax Credit as a form of assistance in its own right¹. The list of qualifying benefits in regulation 10 now reads: child tax credit, working tax credit, housing benefit, income-based jobseeker's allowance, income-related employment and support allowance, income support, state pension credit, and universal credit in the period specified¹. The regulations also provide that an individual is not to be regarded as having been awarded a kind of assistance for a day or a period if the award was made in error or the sum awarded for the day or period is £0¹.

The regulations also changed the payment rates. The basic rate of £4.95 a week was replaced by a reference to "the basic rate", and the higher rate of £9.90 was replaced by "double the basic rate"¹. Separately, Social Security Scotland reports that regulations to increase Best Start Foods payments from £4.95 per week to £5.30 per week came into force on 1 April 2024².

The regulations also added a new category of entitled individual, regulation 7B, covering the person a pregnant woman under 18, or aged 18 or 19 and a dependant, is dependent on, or that person's partner, where they are receiving benefit for the use of the pregnant woman¹. Where applications relate to the same pregnancy, the Scottish Ministers must approve the application in respect of the pregnant woman in priority to applications under regulation 7A or 7B, and cease any payment to the 7A or 7B individual¹. A person entitled to benefit through payment of a kind of assistance listed in regulation 10(1)(a) to (g) does not cease to be entitled until eight weeks after the last day on which they are entitled to that assistance¹.

Best Start Foods replaced Healthy Start Vouchers for new claims in Scotland from 12 August 2019, with payments made every four weeks via a pre-paid card². In 2024/25, 47,730 applications were received for Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods, 47,615 were processed, and 65% were authorised for at least one payment, with a median processing time of ten working days and £35.6 million paid to clients². Of the applications received in 2024/25, 40,185, or 84%, were estimated to be for Best Start Foods². In March 2025, 36,245 payments were issued for Best Start Foods, and 48,565 individual clients received at least one Best Start Foods payment in 2024/25².

Why it matters for households

The change means some families in Scotland who were previously excluded by an income threshold attached to certain benefits now meet the qualifying conditions for Best Start Foods, and households receiving Working Tax Credit qualify in their own right rather than through another benefit¹. The regulations took effect on 26 February 2024, so the change applies to entitlement from that date¹. The rate paid rose from £4.95 to £5.30 a week from 1 April 2024². Best Start Foods is one of several payments administered by Social Security Scotland; the wider benefits system includes Pension Credit, Carer Support Payment and Child Benefit, each with its own qualifying rules. The regulations also set out what happens when more than one person applies in respect of the same pregnancy, with the pregnant woman's application approved in priority and payments to the other individual ceased¹.

What happens next

Social Security Scotland's next statistical publication, covering up to the end of June 2025, was scheduled for release in August 2025². The regulations note that Child Tax Credit is to be ceased from 6 April 2025².