Just saw somebody 'pay' for a massive pack of Amber Leaf, green rizlas and 3 packs of Quavers...

[badcoverversion]

...with Healthy Start vouchers.

I was a bit about it.

AIBU in thinking that both the customer and the retailer are bang out of order using the vouchers for baccy and deep fried cheesey snacks.

You must be kidding!

My EX friend used to be able to do this as well.

Actually the particular shop was well known for accepting healthy start vouchers for anything, including alcohol.

YANBU

eh? I think they were only recently talking about extending what you can get with them to include frozen fruit and veg.

YANBU this is why I thing the whole thing needs to be stopped

Surely that can't be allowed??? That shop is probably breaking the rules I reckon.

I'm deadly serious. The fella at the till was a bit shifty about it. I don't suppose he's meant to accept them for anything other than milk and fruit & veg?

report the shop that is terrible, my supermarket are very strickt and would not put anything other than milk fresh veg though till. I had to do a seperate transaction even if I had teabags or coffee. shocking!!

It's been happening for years. I used to stand in the post office queue and see parents buying cigarettes and sweets with milk tokens.

Just to play devils advocate - is it not possible that they spent their last tenner on fruit and veg? It's not really all that different from people questioning what child benefit and child maintenance is spent on....

MoFo

oh well at the least the 3 children will be fed with the quavers.

My old newsagents used to buy the tokens off some of the local rogues or swap them for bottles of Lambrini.

serendipit in that case, surely they would use their last £10 for their baccy and the vouchers for the fruit and veg, no?

I'm all for the initiative but it seems fucking daft that it can be abused in this way.

Maybe they need to look at limiting the retailers who are allowed to accept them or something.

I must admit that I felt awfully snobby and judgmental looking down my nose at her but it just seemed so wrong in principle.

I would report the shop, surely that is a form of fraud!

My mum has always been really strict on this at the shop she works at. When they were only for milk, they were valued up to the cost of 7 individual pints of milk, which is more expensive than buying a 4pint, 2 pint and 1 pint, so people wanted to use the balance for fags, chocolate or whatever and my mum would never allow it and would write the value of the milk purchase on the voucher as that was all that was redeemed. I would think the shop would be in trouble if it was caught.

Actually I used to work at Kwik Save as a teenager in the 90's and loads of people used to ask if they could use their milk tokens for fags and stuff.

What are Healthy Start vouchers? And if they are anything to do with benefits then, like all government schemes, they will be prone to abuse.

Maybe they only got their vouchers today and had run out of baccy?

You can see what I'm saying though. All household money goes into the pot in my house - so when I get the child benefit, it's usually the week before I get paid. So I certainly don't spend it on clothes and stuff for the children.

Quavers are not deep fried thank you very much they are oven baked

(Not in an Aga though, tsk)

I see what you're saying Seren, but it is a parent's responsibility to use the vouchers for their intended purpose, so why couldn't they get the fruit and veg earlier in the week, then save their cash for their smokes? I put to you (in a courtroom stylee) that this particular parent has never bought fruit and veg in their LIFE!

Like TwoIfBySea I've never heard of Healthy start vouchers?

I used to use these in Tesco for Formula and I had to buy it seperately to avoid mixing them up , used to get dirty looks for using them too!

They were really beneficial to me as they are others but if shops start taking on that attitde then they might as well do away with them.

katykoo If they're like the old milk tokens, they are for new parents who are on income support, to encourage healthy eating.