How much are the Best Start Grant payments

This advice applies to Scotland. See advice for See advice for England, See advice for Northern Ireland, See advice for Wales

The Best Start Grant is a Scottish benefit to help parents and carers on low incomes with the costs of looking after children. There are 3 different payments, which you can apply for as your child gets older.

How much is the School Age Payment

The School Age Payment is a one-off payment of £294.70. It increased from £267.65 on 1 April 2023.

There's no limit on the number of children in a family that you can get the payment for.

How much is the Early Learning Payment

The Early Learning Payment is a one-off payment of £294.70. It increased from £267.65 on 1 April 2023.

There's no limit on the number of children in a family that you can get the payment for.

How much is the Pregnancy and Baby Payment

There are 2 rates of Pregnancy and Baby Payment.

You'll usually get:

£707.25 for a first child
£353.65 for a second or later child.

In some cases, you'll get the higher payment even if you're applying for a second or later child.

You'll also get more money if you're expecting more than 1 baby - for example, you're having twins.

If you applied before 1 April 2023, you'll get £642.35 for a first child and £321.20 for a second or later child.

If this is your first child

You'll get £707.25 if the baby is your first child.

You'll get the £707.25 payment if there's no other child under 16 living in your household for whom you're responsible. You're usually responsible for a child if you're getting Child Benefit, Child Tax Credit or the child element of Universal Credit for them.

For example, if you have a 17-year-old stepson living with you and then you have a baby, you'll get a Pregnancy and Baby Payment of £707.25 for your baby. This is because your stepson is over 16 and so is not treated as your first child.

If this is your second or later child or you already have a child living in your family

You'll usually get £353.65 if the baby is not your first child.

If you're responsible for another child under 16 who is living in your household, they'll be counted as a first child. You're usually responsible for a child if you're getting Child Benefit, Child Tax Credit or the child element of Universal Credit for them.

For example, if you have a 10-year-old stepson living with you and then you have a baby, you'll get a Pregnancy and Baby Payment of £353.65 for your baby. This is because your stepson is treated as your first child.

There's no cap on the number of children you can get a Pregnancy and Baby Payment for.

When you can get the higher payment

You can get the higher payment of £707.25, even if it's not for your first child, if you:

have other children who are not your own and you took responsibility for them when they were older than 12 months old
were forced to leave your home with your children due to domestic abuse
have refugee status, humanitarian protection or leave under the Afghanistan or Ukraine resettlement schemes and your other children were born before coming to the UK.

You can select which circumstance applies to you when you apply for the payment.

If you have twins or more than 1 baby in the same pregnancy

If you're expecting more than 1 baby, for example twins or triplets, you can get an extra £353.65. This is called a 'multiple pregnancy supplement'.

For example, if you have twins and the eldest of them is your first child, you'll get £1,414.55 in total. This is made up of:

£707.25 for the first twin
£353.65 for the second twin
£353.65 for the multiple pregnancy supplement.

If you have twins and they're not your first children, you'll get £1,060.95 in total. This is:

£353.65 for the first twin
£353.65 for the second twin
£353.65 for the multiple pregnancy supplement.

How the payments are made

The payments will usually be made into your bank, building society or credit union account.

You can choose for the payment to be made into someone else's account, such as your partner's account. You should always make sure that you'll be able to get the money to spend on your child. If you want to do this, put the other person's bank account details into the 'Payment details' section on the application form.

Find out how long it will take to get the payment.

If you don't have a bank account

If you don't have a bank account, you can arrange to get the payment in the same way that you get your other benefits. There's a box on the application form that you can tick to say that you don't have a bank account. For example, you might be able to get i-movo vouchers.

Read more about i-movo vouchers on our page about payment of benefits.

If you're paid a Best Start Grant payment by mistake

If Social Security Scotland pays you a Best Start Grant payment by mistake, you might have to repay it.

You won't have to repay it if the mistake was:

not your fault - for example, Social Security Scotland made a mistake
something you could not be expected to notice - but it might be hard to argue that you didn't notice being paid a Best Start Grant payment as they're fixed amounts and don't vary like other benefit payments might.

A mistake might be your fault if, for example, you gave Social Security Scotland incorrect information in your application form.

For example, if you weren't responsible for a child when you applied, perhaps because they had gone to live with a relative, and you didn't realise that you should have told Social Security Scotland about this when you applied, this might be your fault. If you did know that you should have told Social Security Scotland about this, you could have committed a criminal offence.