Best start grant

To get a best start grant you have to be ‘ordinarily resident’ in Scotland and either you or your partner get one of the following benefits.

  • universal credit
  • income support
  • income-based jobseeker’s allowance
  • income-related employment and support allowance
  • pension credit
  • housing benefit
  • child tax credit
  • working tax credit

‘Ordinarily resident’ means you choose to live in Scotland in a settled way, even if this is only for quite a short time. You will probably be asked for proof that you have an address in Scotland.

Additional residence test for younger people

If you don’t get one of the benefits above, you can only get a best start grant if you are under 18, or you are 18 or 19 and someone still gets benefit for looking after you. In these circumstances, you must be ‘ordinarily resident’ in Scotland and meet one of the following conditions.

  • You are ‘habitually resident’ in the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, European Economic Area or Switzerland. This normally requires that you have lived in one of these countries for at least one to three months, and it is the country that you have the closest current connection to.
  • You are a refugee, have humanitarian protection or have been granted discretionary leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom outside the immigration rules.
  • You have leave to remain because you have suffered domestic violence.
  • You are not subject to immigration control, and you are in the UK because you were deported from another country.

These rules also apply to Best Start foods during pregnancy. For the Best Start grant early learning and school age payments, and for Best Start foods for a child, there is also a requirement to show responsibility for the child, which is usually satisfied by entitlement to child benefit, universal credit or tax credits.