In a landscape where inflation is expected to surpass eight per cent while benefits have risen by only 3.1 per cent, it seems unthinkable that an offer of free food would go unclaimed.

And yet that’s exactly what’s happening with Healthy Start vouchers. The NHS scheme covers milk, fruit and veg, pulses and infant formula – in short, many of the things a young family or expectant mum might be buying.

The figures are stark. Take-up of the vouchers, worth £4.25 a week (and those with a child under one can claim two vouchers), had hovered just over 50 per cent across England until the pandemic. Latest figures show it’s now down to 36 per cent.

And Healthy Start has just gone digital. Instead of paper vouchers that were sent out in the post, families now have a prepaid card that’s loaded with their credit every four weeks.

While on the face of it digitisation – like Healthy Start itself – should be a positive, it’s thrown up some issues. Shortly before the transition date earlier this month there were still 68,000 households who were yet to make the move online.

It can literally be the difference between having decent food on the table or not

Andrew Forsey, Feeding Britain

Charity Feeding Britain is just one of the organisations concerned about the figures. Director Andrew Forsey says what it means in reality is hundreds of thousands of pounds not getting into the pockets of the people who really need it.

“Our concerns have intensified by the recent switch to prepaid cards, which may result in at least some families not being switched over to the new cards and therefore joining the ranks of families missing out on their entitlement,” he says.

“It can literally be the difference between having decent food on the table or not from one week to the next.”

Forsey’s right to point to the vital difference the vouchers could make to a family’s food spend, and what happens when the money runs out.

“We know that there are families who haven’t been able to access their entitlement and as a result are having to use foodbanks or go without food,” he says. “That’s how vital a scheme this is.”

Opt-out system

So as the cost of living soars, why has take-up seemingly declined? Especially when the vouchers are available only to a demographic that should be easy to trace.

There are a number of reasons, but Forsey sees three main contributors.

“There’s a combination of factors including low awareness of the scheme, the fact that it can feel like a bureaucratic minefield to navigate when signing on, and also difficulties for families who speak English as a second language,” he says.

Of the three, he says low awareness is the biggest barrier. The solution, as he sees it, is an opt-out system.

“We’ve long called for the whole basis of Healthy Start to be shifted from opt in to opt out,” he says. “So we would say to central government that they should use the data they hold on families who are eligible but not taking up the scheme simply to enrol them and give them the chance to opt out.”

He hopes next winter’s Warm Home Discount may prove to be the catalyst for change. For the first time, it will be paid automatically to certain households that meet the criteria.

“If that could be shown to work, there’s no reason why it can’t be extended to Healthy Start, free school meals, and other passported schemes,” he says.

Crunching the numbers

But it’s not just Healthy Start vouchers that are under-claimed, of course.

With around £15bn of means-tested benefits going unclaimed each year, the cost-of-living crisis means every pound of this cash could be helping struggling households keep their heads above water. There’s even more cash in the form of non means-tested benefits languishing in government coffers.

Tylor-Maria Johnson is a policy and data analyst at analytics firm Policy in Practice. She has done extensive academic research into the uneven take-up of benefits in the US and has some thoughts on what the government here could be doing to improve claim rates.

Removal of the two-child limit, and uprating the benefits cap, would go a long way in helping the households most in need

Tylor-Maria Johnson

“They could consider measures to increase data-sharing between DWP and local authorities,” she says.

“Analysis of more UC data can give councils the insights to help them proactively identify households who might be eligible for other benefits but are not claiming, due to changes in the nature of benefit administration, or lack of awareness about schemes, or inaccessibility of an application.”

And she feels rising prices at the moment should also be the catalyst for wider action.

“The government could also use the cost of living crisis as a driver to reconsider the austerity policy measures that might discourage families from taking up benefits, such as the two-child limit and the benefit cap,” she says.

“Families with many children are likely to be most impacted because they will spend more on food and heating. Removal of the two-child limit, and uprating the benefits cap in line with current rates of inflation, would go a long way in helping households most in need, as well as reducing any hesitation amongst households about getting involved with benefits in the first place.”

Covid vs cost of living

Johnson predicts there’s likely to be a rise in benefits take-up as living costs continue to rise, but she sees a difference between now and two years ago in terms of the motivation.

“Covid had impacted the incomes people had been receiving given the large wave of unemployment it created,” she says. “In this current cost of living, outgoings are mostly impacted.

“Benefit rates do not take into account one’s outgoings outside of rent and childcare costs, which are capped in benefit calculations. Given this, the increase in benefit take-up is not likely to be the result of more people having lower income, but for other reasons.”

For our part, we at Quids in! have now included a benefits calculator on our website, which will also flag up any passported benefits like Healthy Start vouchers that might apply. Plenty of potential claimants still believe that they’d have to be out of work to qualify; equally a person’s circumstances may be consistent but the rules have changed. 

That’s why encouraging clients to take a few minutes to use the calculator – and reassuring them it’s safe and easy – has never been more important.

Main image: Bigstock