Welfare Foods

Mr. Frank Field
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children whose fourth birthdays fall after 1 September 2006 and will not attend school until September 2007 will not as a result be eligible for tokens for the welfare food scheme.

Caroline Flint
From the 27 November 2006, Healthy Start will provide vouchers that can be used to purchase Healthy Start foods for children in qualifying families, until their fourth birthday. Previously, the welfare food scheme provided milk tokens to eligible children up to their fifth birthday.

It is estimated that approximately 120,000 children aged four and under five are affected by this change. The number of children eligible to receive Healthy Start vouchers at any one time will fluctuate according to the number of families receiving qualifying benefits. 

Children aged four and under five attending registered day care for more than two hours per day may be entitled to one third of a pint of free milk per day. In addition, some children aged four in nurseries attached to LEA schools will also be eligible to receive free fruit through the school fruit and vegetable scheme.