{"id":25581,"date":"2025-07-26T18:11:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T18:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/25581\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T18:11:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T18:11:13","slug":"people-who-cant-eat-gluten-given-prepaid-cash-cards-in-uk-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/25581\/","title":{"rendered":"People who can\u2019t eat gluten given prepaid cash cards in UK first"},"content":{"rendered":"

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People in Wales<\/a> who cannot eat gluten<\/a> will soon be able to use prepaid cards to purchase specialised food, the Welsh government announced today. <\/p>\n

The cards, which will be rolled out in a UK-first this autumn after a trial, will be topped up every three months and the amount for each patient will vary. <\/p>\n

The scheme aims to give people with conditions such as coeliac disease<\/a> access to a bigger range of gluten-free food<\/a>, and allow them to avoid relying on pharmacy prescriptions. <\/p>\n

Cherylee Barker, 54, who was diagnosed with coeliac disease in 2007 and took part in the trial, said she got \u00a314 a month on her card as part of the scheme, which she told the BBC only “scratches the surface of the cost”.<\/p>\n

\"Gluten-freeGluten-free products are typically more expensive and can add up to 35% to food bills<\/p>\n

Coeliac disease is a serious autoimmune illness in which the body\u2019s immune system attacks its tissue when gluten is consumed. It affects one in 100 people. <\/p>\n

The Welsh cabinet secretary for health and social care, Jeremy Miles, said: \u201cFor people living with coeliac disease, following a strict gluten-free diet is not a lifestyle choice but a medical necessity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miles said they want to demedicalise Wales\u2019 gluten-free food supply and give people more options. <\/p>\n

He said it will also help cut the current administrative burdens on GPs and pharmacies, and promote NHS resources. <\/p>\n

Its users will have to pay for gluten-containing food separately to ensure it is being used legitimately. <\/p>\n

Tristan Humphreys from, Coeliac UK, said: \u201cFor those living with coeliac disease, basic gluten-free products are on average more than double their gluten-containing counterparts. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis scheme offers an empowering, practical alternative for patients, and we know the coeliac community in Wales will be encouraged by this flexible new support option.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[102,6636,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-25581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-nutrition","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}