Allpay Wins NHS Contract to Transform Healthy Start Payments

The UK National Health Service’s Healthy Start scheme is a statutory benefit that helps low-income pregnant women and families with children under four buy milk, fruit, vegetables and vitamins for young children. Moving the scheme to prepaid cards and digital payment technology can streamline benefit distribution, improve audit efficiency and eliminate the stigma associated with traditional paper vouchers.

UK payment services provider allpay Limited said on July 10, 2026, that it had won an NHS contract to transform the scheme’s payment system. It will introduce prepaid cards and implement anti-money-laundering and fraud-prevention measures. The NHS had already increased the benefit from April 6, 2026, to £9.30 a week for infants under one and £4.65 a week for pregnant women and children aged one to four.