The impact of cash transfers in the first 1000 days on child health outcomes and health inequalities: an evidence review

Author: Emma Stewart

PDF Published: Wednesday 25 Mar 2026 (SB 26-23)

Timeline of UK and Scottish pregnancy and early childhood payments.

Image: Figure 1: Cash transfers in pregnancy and early childhood - Scotland (2000-2026)

Graphic summarising study effects. Out of 143 measures, 36 outcomes following targeted payments and 25 following universal payments showed positive effects. Positive effects were found for 15 outcomes following conditional payments and 46 following unconditional payments, out of 138 measured. All other outcomes showed null effect.

Image: Figure 8: Summary of positive child health outcomes by policy targeting and conditionality (n=143/138)

Graphic summarising impact of 27 studies. 5 studies found positive effects on antenatal care and engagement. Other positive effects were: prematurity - 5 studies, low birthweight - 10 studies, infant hospitalisations - 2 studies and child development - 3 studies.

Image: Figure 9: Summary of studies reporting positive child health outcomes (N=27)

Bar graph showing over 60 per cent of outcomes following one-off payments in pregnancy and early childhood and nearly 40 per cent of outcomes following universal payments showed positive effects, with remaining outcomes showing null effects.

Image: Figure 2: Universal and targeted one-off cash transfers by early years outcomes (n=65)

Bar graph summarising 63 early years outcomes, showing positive effects for nearly 60 per cent following conditional payments and over 30 per cent following unconditional payments.

Image: Figure 3: Unconditional and conditional one-off cash transfers by early years outcomes (n=63)

Bar graph showing early years payment outcomes by size of payment. Showing that studies of smaller payments (under £600) found more positive outcomes than studies of payments over £1,000 or £3001+.

Image: Figure 4: Payment size of one-off cash transfers by early years outcomes (n=65)

Bar chart showing the number of positive and null outcomes by type of outcome and study quality. Shows that moderate to high quality studies found more positive birthweight outcomes compared to other types of outcome. Moderate quality studies report most positive outcomes for antenatal care engagement and infant hospitalisations.

Image: Figure 5: Evidence on one-off cash transfers by early years outcomes and study quality (n=55)

Bar graph showing that over 50 per cent of outcomes for smaller regular payments (under £600) were positive, compared to over 20 per cent of outcomes for large payments (£3001+).

Image: Figure 6: Payment size of regular cash transfers by early years outcomes (n=73)

Bar chart showing number of positive and null outcomes by type of early years outcome. Showing that more positive outcomes were found for low birthweight (5 positive outcomes) and antenatal care (6 positive outcomes) than other types of outcome. Of 20 child outcomes measured, 5 were positive and 15 were null.

Image: Figure 7: Evidence on regular cash transfers by early years outcomes and study quality (n=63)

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