allpay has confirmed a contract with the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) to facilitate payment card top-ups to the digitised Healthy Start Scheme which will be launched in 2021.
Healthy Start is a statutory scheme which will be administered by the NHSBSA on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) from 2021, to support better diets for lower-income pregnant women and families with children under four.
The NHSBSA is launching a digitised Healthy Start Scheme in 2021 that will offer an online application form and prepaid card to replace the current paper vouchers. This will help disadvantaged families eat more healthily by providing support that is simpler to access and more flexible to use.
allpay is to facilitate top-ups to the scheme’s new payment cards, which can be spent on fresh, tinned or frozen plain fruit and vegetables, pulses, milk and infant formula.
Digitisation of the scheme removes the requirement for retailers to register with the scheme, to accept paper vouchers in their stores. Unlike the paper voucher scheme, the new digital scheme will allow beneficiaries to purchase items in any retailer with a card payment system.
The Healthy Start Scheme currently supports some 300,000 beneficiaries a year, with digitisation expected to help support more families to apply for and use the scheme.
allpay has previously worked with the Scottish Government on the “Best Start Foods” scheme, the prepaid card programme assists families with children under three who are eligible for certain income benefits and encourages the purchase of “healthy” products from retailers.
Tony Killeen, Managing Director, allpay Limited said: “The digitisation of the Healthy Start Scheme is an exciting step and I am delighted that allpay has been able to utilise its prepaid solution to help the NHS Business Services Authority and other partners make this, what we hope, will be a very successful initiative.”
Chris Calise, Head of Service for Healthy Start, at NHSBSA said: “NHSBSA is looking forward to helping more families to eat healthily and making the scheme available to more families through the delivery of a digital scheme and the contract with allpay is a step in the right direction. We’re looking forward to working with them on this important initiative.”
Note to editors:
About Healthy Start
Healthy Start is a statutory scheme which is currently administered by contractors on behalf of DHSC. The NHSBSA will be administering the digital scheme on behalf of DHSC, due to launch in 2021.
The NHS Business Services Authority is an Arm’s Length Body of the Department of Health and Social Care. We manage over £35 billion of NHS spend annually delivering a range of national services to NHS organisations, NHS contractors, patients and the public. Our purpose is to be a catalyst for better health and our vision is to be the delivery partner of choice for the NHS.
For more information about the NHSBSA, please visit www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk
About allpay Limited
allpay is the market leader of bill payment, prepaid and card payment solutions, delivering innovative and value-added services. With over 25 years’ experience allpay has the capacity and resources to manage all payment flows, utilising the most cost-effective technology available. Our aim is to work with each of our 980 public and private sector clients to optimise and secure incoming and outgoing payments to reduce costs and increase efficiency resulting in us processing over £8.5bn of payment transactions per year for some 4.5m+ end customers.
For more information please visit: www.allpay.net