The Healthy Start Scheme and Day Care Food Scheme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006

PART IVVOUCHERS

Issue of voucher

10.—(1) For each week that a beneficiary is entitled to the Healthy Start food benefit under regulations 4 and 5 the Department shall issue or cause to be issued to that beneficiary a voucher to enable the beneficiary to obtain the Healthy Start food benefit to which he is entitled.

(2) The period of validity of the voucher shall not be less than four weeks and not more than six months from and including the date of issue of the voucher.

(3) The value represented by the voucher in respect of which the voucher may be exchanged under regulation 12 for Healthy Start food is £2.80.

(4) The Department shall ensure that the following are indicated on the face of the voucher—

(a)the value represented by the voucher;

(b)a description of Healthy Start food; and

(c)the period of validity of the voucher.

Provision of Healthy Start vitamins

11.—(1) A health service body is a Health and Social Services Board or a Health and Social Services Trust.

(2) A health service body shall have the function of provision of Healthy Start vitamins for beneficiaries.

(3) A health service body may make arrangements for a pharmacist or other person or body to supply Healthy Start vitamins for beneficiaries on its behalf.

(4) Where a health service body makes arrangements under paragraph (3), it must inform beneficiaries where they may obtain Healthy Start vitamins.

(5) A beneficiary who is entitled to Healthy Start vitamins must produce documentary evidence of his entitlement to a person who supplies Healthy Start vitamins for beneficiaries.

(6) For the purposes of paragraph (5), documentary evidence of entitlement may consist of a letter from the Department that confirms the entitlement of the beneficiary to Healthy Start food and, if requested by the person who supplies the Healthy Start vitamins, in respect of a beneficiary who is a child, documentary evidence of the child’s age.

(7) The Department shall pay a health service body an amount equal to the cost of the Healthy Start vitamins that the health service body has provided (or secured the provision of) to a beneficiary.

Use of voucher

12.—(1) A beneficiary may within the period of its validity exchange a voucher for Healthy Start food.

(2) Subject to paragraph (3), a voucher issued to a beneficiary may be used only by the beneficiary for whom it was issued.

(3) A voucher issued to a beneficiary who is a child who is breast-fed by his mother may be exchanged for Healthy Start food for consumption by the mother.

(4) No person shall buy or sell or otherwise use—

(a)a voucher;

(b)Healthy Start food supplied in exchange for a voucher;

(c)Healthy Start vitamins supplied under the Healthy Start scheme to a beneficiary,

except in accordance with the Healthy Start scheme.

Failure to receive benefit represented by the voucher

13.—(1) If a beneficiary fails to receive benefit as a result of a failure to receive a voucher, he may, in accordance with paragraph (3), so notify in writing the Department for the purposes of paragraph (4).

(2) If a beneficiary who is entitled to benefit under regulations 4 and 5 receives a voucher in accordance with regulation 10, and

(a)the voucher is lost or stolen or accidentally destroyed before it is exchanged for Healthy Start food; or

(b)there is no food outlet within a reasonable distance of the beneficiary’s home; or

(c)the beneficiary is a child under the age of one year and there is no food outlet within a reasonable distance of the child’s home at which a voucher can be exchanged for Healthy Start food consisting of infant formula as described in Schedule 2;

the beneficiary may, in accordance with paragraph (3), so notify in writing the Department for the purposes of this regulation.

(3) A beneficiary who so notifies in the circumstances described —

(a)in paragraph (1) must, in the case of the first voucher pursuant to a claim, do so within twelve weeks of, and including the date he submitted his claim to the Department or, in any other case, within four weeks of and including the date of expiry of his last voucher;

(b)in paragraph (2) must do so before expiry of the period of validity of the voucher.

(4) If the Department is satisfied—

(a)on a notification pursuant to paragraph (1) or otherwise, that a beneficiary did not receive a voucher because of some act or omission on the part of the Department or Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs(1),

(b)on a notification pursuant to paragraph (2)(a), that the voucher has been lost or stolen or accidentally destroyed, or

(c)on a notification pursuant to paragraph (2)(b) or (c), that there is no food outlet within a reasonable distance of the beneficiary’s home or no such food outlet at which a voucher can be exchanged for Healthy Start food consisting of infant formula as described in Schedule 2,

it shall either, as it considers appropriate, issue or cause to be issued to that beneficiary a voucher or pay the beneficiary an amount equal to the value represented by the voucher.

Property in voucher

14.—(1) Every voucher is and shall remain the property of the Department.

(2) Any person in possession of a voucher shall, if so requested by the Department, produce or deliver it to the Department within such time and to such place as the Department may direct in writing.