TCM0204100 | Passported benefits - Healthy Start vouchers: Healthy Start vouchers - Healthy Start Issuing Unit enquiries (Info)

The Healthy Start Issuing Unit (HSIU) is contracted to the Department of Health (DoH). It’s their responsibility to issue Healthy Start vouchers to tax credits customers who’ve applied for the vouchers and whose details have been passed to the HSIU by HMRC.

The information is passed to the HSIU every two weeks. Once the data is passed to the HSIU, it’s their responsibility to verify any applications for Healthy Start vouchers and issue them where appropriate. There could be up to a five-week delay from the date the customer applied for Healthy Start vouchers before they receive their first issue of them from the HSIU.

When an application for Healthy Start vouchers has been made and the data is passed to HSIU, entitlement to Healthy Start vouchers will automatically be backdated eight weeks, or to the start date of the customer’s award, whichever is earlier.

As HSIU doesn’t have access to the tax credits computer, they’ll email a dedicated person to establish if there’s entitlement to Healthy Start vouchers from an earlier date.

The criteria for receiving Healthy Start vouchers is listed in TCM0204020.

In order to answer the query, you must use the tax credits computer to check the entitlement period and reply to the email confirming the entitlement.

There is an Action Guide for this subject, select TCM0204120 to access it.