- Eligible customers can receive £3 a week for six weeks, worth up to £18.
- Registration closes at 11:59pm on November 9, 2026, with the first eGift cards due from November 18.
- Shoppers must have used their Healthy Start Mastercard and Nectar card together in a Sainsbury’s transaction during the past 12 months.
Sainsbury’s is bringing back its Healthy Start top-up, offering eligible families extra help with food shopping in the run-up to Christmas.
The supermarket says customers enrolled in the NHS Healthy Start scheme can apply for an additional £3 a week for six weeks, adding up to £18. The support is available to eligible customers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and can be used for fruit, vegetables, beans and pulses.
The offer is not automatic. Customers must register online by 11:59pm on November 9, 2026, to receive the weekly eGift cards by email from November 18.
Who qualifies for Sainsbury’s £3 top-up?
The offer is for eligible NHS Healthy Start customers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Healthy Start is a government scheme that helps qualifying pregnant women and families with children under four buy healthy food and milk through a prepaid card.
To qualify for Sainsbury’s additional support, customers must have shopped at the supermarket within the past 12 months using both their Healthy Start Mastercard and Nectar card in the same transaction.
The extra payment is separate from the usual Healthy Start allowance. Customers who receive the top-up will continue to get their regular Healthy Start payments as long as they remain eligible for the government scheme.
Sainsbury’s says it is the first retailer to offer an additional top-up since Healthy Start moved to a prepaid card format in 2022.
How do you register and spend the eGift cards?
Eligible customers must sign up through Sainsbury’s Healthy Start registration page before the deadline.
- Registration deadline: 11:59pm on November 9, 2026
- First eGift cards: From November 18
- Amount: £3 each week for six weeks, up to £18
- Where to use them: Sainsbury’s stores and online
The eGift cards can be used for fresh, frozen, tinned and dried fruit and vegetables, as well as beans and pulses. Each £3 card must be used within seven days of receipt, so customers cannot save all six for a larger Christmas shop.
Sainsbury’s previously trialled a Healthy Start top-up in 2021. Analysis by Leeds Institute for Data Analytics, in partnership with IGD, found that customers who redeemed the top-up coupon bought an average of 13 more portions of fruit and vegetables per basket than those who did not.
Nilani Srithran, Sainsbury’s head of healthy and sustainable diets, said the supermarket was bringing back the support when family budgets face additional pressure.
Public health minister Dame Diana Johnson welcomed the initiative and encouraged other retailers to follow Sainsbury’s lead. Anna Taylor, executive director of The Food Foundation, also praised the move, saying the government scheme provides a vital nutritional safety net but that too many eligible families still miss out.
