Healthy Start Vouchers, Sure Start Maternity Grant and Funeral Payment for Kinship Carers

Healthy Start Vouchers (Now a Prepaid Card)

If you're a kinship carer looking after a child under 4, the Healthy Start scheme provides a prepaid card loaded every four weeks to spend on milk, fresh or frozen fruit and vegetables, infant formula, and pulses. The card works at most supermarkets and smaller retailers that accept Mastercard.

The amounts:

• £4.65 per week for each child aged 1 to 3
• £9.30 per week for each child under 1

You may qualify if you receive Universal Credit (with take-home pay of £408 or less per month), Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, or Pension Credit. Eligibility also depends on the child living with you and the scheme's other conditions.

Apply online at the Healthy Start website. You'll need your National Insurance number, date of birth, and details of the qualifying benefit you receive. Approval typically takes 4–6 weeks, and payments are backdated to the date the application was received.

Kinship carers frequently miss this one. If a toddler or baby arrives suddenly and you're on a qualifying benefit, apply immediately. The child doesn't need to be biologically yours — the scheme looks at who the child lives with and whether that household receives a qualifying benefit.

Sure Start Maternity Grant

Despite the name, this £500 lump sum isn't only for birth mothers. A kinship carer who becomes responsible for a child under 12 months may qualify if they meet the benefit and other eligibility rules.

The conditions:

• You or your partner must receive Universal Credit, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Pension Credit, or a Support for Mortgage Interest loan
• The child must be under 12 months at the date you claim
• Usually, you must have no other child under 16 in the household. Exceptions include multiple births; some cases where the child you are caring for is someone else's and was over 12 months old when the arrangement started; and some cases where you are becoming responsible for a family member or are the child's guardian.

That condition can affect kinship carers too, but it is not an absolute bar. For example, the rules include an exception where the child you are caring for is someone else's and was over 12 months old when the arrangement started. Check the current GOV.UK rules before ruling out a claim.

Claim using Form SF100 (Sure Start Maternity Grant), available on GOV.UK. Post it to Freepost DWP SSMG. If you become responsible for the child, claim within six months of that happening; the child must also be under 12 months old on the date you claim. There's no backdating beyond this window.

Funeral Expenses Payment

This benefit isn't about the kinship child — it's about the kinship carer's own financial safety net, and it can also apply when a child's parent dies and the carer is responsible for funeral costs.

If you or your partner receives Universal Credit, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Pension Credit, Housing Benefit, or a Support for Mortgage Interest loan, you may qualify for a Funeral Expenses Payment, subject to the relationship rules. It can help cover:

• Eligible burial or cremation fees
• Up to £1,000 for other funeral expenses (flowers, coffin, transport of the body)
• The cost of necessary travel to arrange or attend the funeral

If you receive money from the deceased's estate, the Funeral Expenses Payment is deducted from that money. It is not a loan that you repay from your own funds.

Claim using Form SF200 within six months of the funeral. A kinship carer arranging an adult relative's funeral may qualify under the close-relative rules; whether another close relative can claim may affect eligibility. A person responsible for a deceased child under 16 (or under 20 in approved education or training) may qualify under the separate child-funeral rules.

These Benefits Add Up

Individually, each of these seems small. But a kinship carer looking after a baby on Universal Credit could combine Healthy Start (£9.30/week), the Sure Start grant (£500 one-off), Child Benefit (£27.05/week), and UC child elements — before counting any local authority allowance tied to an SGO or CAO.

The Money for Kinship Carers in England guide shows which of these stack with which, and includes the exact forms and claim routes for each one, so nothing falls through the cracks during a crisis.

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