A million pounds worth of food and milk vouchers for hard-up families is going unclaimed each week, a leading charity warns tonight.
The proportion of eligible households claiming Healthy Start coupons fell from 65% in November to just 51.5% in December, according to an analysis by Feeding Britain.
However, the Department of Health said that only accounted for paper vouchers and not digital cards, so more people claim using cards.
Under the scheme, eligible women who are pregnant or parents who have a child under four can get weekly vouchers worth £4.25 to buy basics like milk or fruit.
Parents who have a child under 12-months-old can receive two coupons.
But research by the charity said that of 449,748 potential beneficiaries, just 231,746 are enrolled on the scheme.
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That means 218,002 miss out - with at least £926,508.50 of vouchers going unclaimed every week.
Because some of the unclaimed coupons will be for youngsters aged under one year - whose parents are entitled to two a week - Feeding Britain believes the weekly unclaimed value is at least £1m.
It called for an automatic registration scheme so struggling families do not lose out.
National director Andrew Forsey believed an overhaul would boost take-up of the scheme “and overcome barriers such as low awareness, bureaucracy, and stigma”.
He said: “At a time when hard-pressed families need every bit of help they can get, it's appalling to see from these data just how many are now falling through the holes in the safety net.
“Those holes could be fixed at a stroke if the Prime Minister shifted the basis of Healthy Start from 'opt in', to 'opt out' - thereby helping those families stretch their budgets further each week.
“With automatic registration rightly deemed fair and just for some schemes, why not extend it to this one too?”
Claimants are eligible if they are at least 10 weeks pregnant or have at least one child under four-years-old and receive any of a series of welfare benefits, including Child Tax Credit, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Pension Credit, or Universal Credit - if the family earns £408 or less a month.
Those who qualify are sent coupons they can redeem in more than 30,000 shops.
Feeding Britain said take-up in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's local authority area of Hillingdon was just 53% with 1,273 eligible families missing out.
In Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey's East Norfolk area it is 52%, with 718 eligible families not on the scheme.
And in Chancellor Rishi Sunak's backyard of Richmondshire, North Yorks, it was 45% with 81 families missing out.
No local authority in England was able to secure a take-up rate of higher than 62%.
In some areas, such as Boston, Lincs; Rutland, and Staffordshire Moorlands, take-up did not even hit 40%.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said that “children growing up in poverty deserve better”.
He added: "Rising child poverty and destitution are a shameful national scandal and falling take up of the vital Healthy Start voucher scheme is yet more evidence of Tory incompetence.
“Every child deserves the best start in life.
“With Universal Credit slashed, rocketing fuel bills, punishing tax rises and more cuts in support for children likely this April, Boris Johnson should be moving heaven and earth to help families hit hard by the cost of living crisis.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “The Healthy Start scheme helps to encourage a healthy diet for babies and young children under four from low-income households.
"Around 60% of eligible people currently receive these vouchers and the work to digitise the scheme is ongoing to help even more families to apply for and benefit from the scheme.
“Already, more than 150,000 families have begun to use their pre-paid card which is replacing paper cards.”
How to apply for Healthy Start
Who is eligible?
You must be at least 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under four years old.
You must also receive one of the following benefits:
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Child Tax Credit with a family income of £16,190 or less per year
- Pension Credit
- Universal Credit with 'take home pay' of £408 or less per month for the family
You also qualify if you are under 18 and pregnant, even if you don’t get any of the above benefits.
You can also get the vouchers if you're on Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, but only while pregnant and not after the baby is born.
How do you apply?
Visit the Healthy Start website. You can either print off a blank form, or fill out an online application form which you then print off at the end.
You should fill out Part A carefully in black ink using CAPITAL letters.
Part B can be left blank - it involves getting a health professional's signature. This has been suspended due to coronavirus.
Make sure all the information on the form is correct and that you have signed and dated it.
Send the form to the address below in an envelope - there's no need for a stamp:
Freepost RRTR-SYAE-JKCR
Healthy Start Issuing Unit
PO Box 1067
Warrington
WA55 1EG
What do they buy?
Milk: This must be plain cow’s milk and can be whole, semi-skimmed or skimmed. It must also be pasteurised, sterilised, long-life or ultra-heat treated (UHT).
You can’t spend your vouchers on flavoured milk, coloured milk, evaporated milk, condensed milk, goat’s milk, soya milk, powdered milk (unless it’s infant formula) or milk with anything added to it such as milkshakes or vitamin-enriched milk.
Plain fresh or frozen fruit and vegetables: This means any kind of plain fresh or frozen fruit or vegetables, whole or chopped, packaged or loose.
You can’t spend your vouchers on any fruit or vegetables which have added ingredients such as fat (oil), salt, sugar or flavourings – including oven chips and battered onion rings. You also can’t spend them on dried, canned, juiced or pre-cooked fruit and vegetables (this will change in October) or on smoothies.
Tinned fruit and vegetables, and pulses: They can also also used to purchase tinned fruit and vegetables and fresh, dried and tinned pulses.
Infant formula milk: This must be infant formula milk that is based on cow’s milk and says on the packaging that it can be used from birth.
You can’t spend your vouchers on infant formulas that are not based on cow’s milk – such as soya formulas and goat’s milk formulas – or on any follow-on formulas that say on the packaging that they are for babies aged six months or older.
Where can they be spent?
In any shop that is registered to take part in the Healthy Start scheme. These include corner shops, supermarkets, market stalls, greengrocers, milk floats and pharmacies.
They can also be used in most shops which accept Mastercard.
The Healthy Start website has a postcode finder.
