Best Start Grants

Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods are payments that help towards the costs of being pregnant or looking after a child. They’re part of the 5 family payments you may be able to get from Social Security Scotland, along with Scottish Child Payment.

Best Start Grant is made up of 3 one-off payments:

• Pregnancy and Baby Payment;
• Early Learning Payment; and
• School Age Payment.

Pregnancy and Baby Payment

Pregnancy and Baby Payment helps with the costs of having a baby. You can apply for this payment during pregnancy to help prepare for your baby's arrival, or after your baby is born.

You can get Pregnancy and Baby Payment any time after you have reached the end of the 24th week of pregnancy until the day your baby is 6 months old. If your baby is born before 24 weeks, you can apply from this date up to the day your baby is 6 months old. If you've taken over looking after a child, for example, if you've adopted, you can apply up to the day before the child's first birthday.

You'll get a Pregnancy and Baby Payment of £796.65 for your first child (your oldest child under 16, any stepchildren or any child you are responsible for through adoption or kinship care). This will change to a payment of £398.35 for your second or third child, or any child after these.

Visit mygov.Scot for more detail on the Pregnancy and Baby Payment as well as further details on multiple births (e.g. twins or triplets) as well as applying for the Pregnancy and Baby Payment for a baby that was stillborn or died after they were born.

Early Learning Payment 

Early Learning Payment is a payment of £331.95 per child to help with the costs of early learning. You can get the payment when your child is aged between 2 years old and 3 years and 6 months old. To get this payment your child does not need to go to nursery.

Learn more about the Early Learning Payment here.

School Age Payment

You can get the payment for multiple children, as long as each child is the right age when you apply. 

To get a payment, your child does not have to take up a place at school. You'll still need to apply in the year that your child is first old enough to start school, if:

• you're deferring when your child starts school; or
• your child is not going to school.

Find out more about the Best Start Grant and details on how to apply here. 

School Age Payment - when do I apply?

When you need to apply for the School Age Payment depends on when your child was born:

Applications for the School Age Payment will open 1st June 2026 for children born between 01 March 2021 to 28 February 2022. Qualifying parents/guardians may receive £331.95 to help with the cost of attending school. 

The application dates for children born between 1 March 2020 and 28 February 2021 have now passed. You cannot apply for a child outside of these application dates.