SOME shoppers have been left confused after supermarkets appear to be putting their own price on state-provided Healthy Start vouchers for low-income families.

Parents or soon-to-be parents on low income or benefits are entitled to Healthy Start vouchers under the government's support for families.  

The Healthy Start scheme to designed improve the health of low-income pregnant women and families on benefits and tax credits, who are provided with a £3.10 vouchers every week.

This can then be spent on milk, fresh, frozen and tinned fruit and vegetables, fresh, dried and tinned pulses, and infant formula milk.   

Marcus Rashford’s Child Poverty Task Force, established in the aftermath of the free school meals debate last year, successfully pressed the government to increase the value of the Healthy Start vouchers to £4.25 per week, from £3.10. 

Retailers who are part of the task force are boosting the value of vouchers in attempts to plug the gap between now and the planned government increase, which will come into force in April 2021.

Tesco has added a £1 coupon to all weekly Healthy Start vouchers to spend on fresh and frozen fruit and vegetable.

Co-op and Lidl have topped up the value of the Government’s Healthy Start vouchers by an additional £1.

Iceland is offering a free £1 pack of frozen vegetables to all families using Healthy Start Vouchers, including in The Food Warehouse stores.

While some big names are topping up vouchers, many others are not. This may have created a disparity between those spending vouchers in different stores, but it is not the case that some shops are devaluing their worth.

Henry Dimbleby, the independent lead for the National Food Strategy, said: “The huge strain on family budgets resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic has made tackling rising child food poverty a matter of national urgency.

"That’s why one of our key recommendations in the National Food Strategy Part 1 was for the Government to increase the value of Healthy Start vouchers so that young children from low-income households can have access to the nutritious foods they need.

"We are delighted that this call has been met, by Government who will increase the value of the voucher from next April, and by retailers such as Lidl and Co-op who will be boosting the scheme to support their customers directly.

"This will have a rapid and significant impact on the diets and health of our youngest and most vulnerable children at a most critical time.”