Barnsley College student smokers get cash boost for kicking habit

Students at Barnsley College who successfully stop smoking for three months can claim the £35 gift vouchers

Student smokers at a South Yorkshire college will be offered cash to quit under a new pilot scheme.

Gift cards worth £35 will be awarded to students at Barnsley College if they kick the habit for three months.

The college, which has teamed up with Barnsley Council for the new scheme, has run a stop smoking programme with NHS Yorkshire Smokefree since 2019.

Money from the council's Covid-19 recovery fund will be used to pay for the scheme.

Councillor Caroline Makinson, the authority's public health spokesperson, said: "I hope it will help young people go smoke-free from an early age."

Everyone should have the "best possible chance of enjoying life in good health", she added.

"Studies have shown financial incentives are an effective way to help people quit and stay quit, even after the incentives end."

The gift vouchers will be valid in over 250 places around Barnsley, including Marks and Spencer, River Island, Primark, the markets and the Market Kitchen.

Liam Garside, head of student services at Barnsley College, said NHS Yorkshire Smokefree's 12-week quit programme offered nicotine replacement therapy and weekly carbon monoxide monitoring to "support the council's Healthy Barnsley vision while improving the health and welfare of our students and staff".

In 2021, over 18% of adults in Barnsley were smokers, with around 1,350 cancers diagnosed each year in South Yorkshire due to smoking, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

Smoking-related hospital admissions in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw cost the NHS more than £26m a year, the LDRS said.