Torbay’s MP Kevin Foster has backed cross-party efforts to ensure families eligible for the Healthy Start Scheme do not miss out.
A bill being presented to the House of Commons on Wednesday 14th June by Labour MP Emma Lewell-Buck would widen take up of the Healthy Start Scheme through automatic enrolment. Healthy Start is an NHS scheme that helps women who are pregnant or have young children and are receiving benefits, buy foods such as milk or fruit. Those eligible are sent a Healthy Start card with money on it that can be used in some UK shops. The card can be used 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
The card can also be used 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 4 years old
Uptake across England is currently only 64% and it is calculated by Sustain that this equates to over 200,000 families missing out on £68m pounds worth of nutritious food. Torbay has an uptake rate of 64.8%, but this still means an estimated £103,839.32 of entitlement was not claimed by those entitled to help from the scheme locally.
The Healthy Start Scheme Bill would ensure families eligible for the scheme are automatically registered to receive it. Families could still opt out of the scheme if they wished. Kevin Foster MP joined a Cross Party group of MPs at an event held to back the bill and said afterwards: “I am pleased to be joining cross-party efforts to ensure no family misses out on the healthy start this scheme is meant to deliver. The Department for Health and Social Care knows which families are missing out, so this bill would ensure they get the support they are entitled to.”
You can find more information about the Healthy Start Scheme on the NHS website at: https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/
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