Financial help for new parents in the UK

The one-off grant with a deadline

The Sure Start Maternity Grant is a one-off payment of £500 from the Department for Work and Pensions towards the costs of having a child. It does not have to be repaid and it does not affect your other benefits.

You usually qualify if you are expecting your first child, or expecting a multiple birth and already have children, and you or your partner already receive certain qualifying benefits. The trap is the deadline: you must claim within 11 weeks of the due date or within 6 months after the birth. Miss it and there is no appeal on time grounds.

Where you already have children under 16, the amount depends on what you have. If you have one or more children and none were from a multiple birth, twins bring £500 and triplets £1,000. If you have already had twins, triplets bring £500 and further twins bring nothing. If you have already had triplets, nothing further is payable. Scotland is excluded from this grant entirely and runs its own scheme instead.

Healthy Start: weekly money for food and formula

Healthy Start is a prepaid card, topped up every 4 weeks, for buying plain cow's milk, fruit and vegetables, pulses and first infant formula. The NHS Business Services Authority raised the rates in April 2026, and they now stand at:

• £4.65 a week from the 10th week of pregnancy
• £9.30 a week for a child from birth to 1 year old
• £4.65 a week for a child aged 1 to 4

The card also collects free Healthy Start vitamins for pregnancy and breastfeeding, and vitamin drops for children from birth to 4. Payments stop when your child turns 4.

You can apply online if you are more than 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under 4, you get Universal Credit, and your family's monthly take-home pay from employment is £408 or less. Your details must match your Universal Credit claim exactly, and your child must be named and verified on that claim — do it within 12 weeks of the estimated due date to get the right amount. If you get Pension Credit including the child addition, apply by email or by phoning 0300 330 7010, open 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday. If you are under 18 and more than 10 weeks pregnant you qualify until the baby is born whether or not you receive any benefits, and you apply by phone or email rather than online.

The card cannot be used online, outside the UK, on a phone wallet, or for cashback. It works anywhere displaying a Mastercard symbol that sells the eligible items.

Child Benefit

Child Benefit is paid by HM Revenue and Customs and, for the 2026 to 2027 tax year, is £27.05 a week for the eldest or only child and £17.90 a week for each additional child. Rates are uprated each April.

Claim it even if you expect to pay it back. Claiming protects your National Insurance record while you are not working, which protects your State Pension, and it is how your child gets an NI number automatically at 16. If your or your partner's adjusted net income is over the threshold you may owe the High Income Child Benefit Charge, which is never more than the Child Benefit you received, and you can still keep the National Insurance credits.

If a family splits up, the eldest-child rate goes to whoever the eldest child lives with, and two separated parents with one child each are both paid at the higher rate. If two families join, only the eldest child in the new household attracts the higher rate.

If you live in Scotland

Scotland's payments are run by Social Security Scotland and are considerably larger. The Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment is £796.65 for a first child and £398.35 for each child after that, claimable from the end of the 24th week of pregnancy until the day the baby is 6 months old, or up to the day before the first birthday if you have taken over looking after a child. In some circumstances a later child still attracts the higher rate. Best Start Foods replaces Healthy Start north of the border. All five Scottish family payments, plus Scottish Child Payment, are claimed on one form.

Universal Credit and the childcare element

A new baby adds a child element to a Universal Credit award, and Universal Credit can also reimburse up to 85% of childcare costs. You cannot hold Universal Credit childcare and Tax-Free Childcare at the same time, so run the numbers before choosing. Report the birth promptly, because Universal Credit changes usually apply from the assessment period in which you report them rather than being backdated.

Things that are free but not automatic

Two entitlements are commonly missed because nobody sends a letter. NHS prescriptions and NHS dental treatment are free during pregnancy and for 12 months after the birth in England, but you need a maternity exemption certificate, applied for through your midwife or GP. And Healthy Start vitamins are collected with the card rather than being posted, so they go unclaimed by families who are receiving the money.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland already provide free prescriptions to everyone, so the certificate is an England-only step, and it is one of the few things worth chasing during pregnancy rather than after.

What to do, and when

Apply for Healthy Start from week 10 of pregnancy. Claim the Sure Start Maternity Grant from 11 weeks before the due date. Claim Child Benefit as soon as the birth is registered. Report the birth to Universal Credit the same week. Every figure here comes from the body that sets it, and every one of them moves in April, so check the rate before you budget on it.