Asda is axing its discount scheme for Blue Light Card holders later this month, in a blow to millions of workers.
Teachers, NHS, social care and emergency workers currently receive 5 per cent off fresh food, including meat, fish fruit and veg, fresh fruit juice and smoothies, dairy and bakery products.
But from 27 May, Asda is scrapping its Blue Light Card scheme discount in its entirety.
From 13 May, Blue Light Card members will no longer be able to link their current membership to their Asda Rewards accounts.
The supermarket giant said existing linked accounts would continue receiving exclusive member offers until the final cut-off date on 27 May.
Asda’s update has prompted criticism from some shoppers on social media.
Big change: Asda is axing its discount scheme for Blue Light Card holders later this month
One customer said online: ‘Asda really aren’t selling themselves anymore with their rewards scheme.’
Another expressed disappointment, posting: ‘In other words thanks for all you do but we don’t give a damn about it anymore, it’s happening a lot lately.’
One shopper wrote: ‘Might be time to change supermarkets! The rewards have gone significantly downhill over the last two years.’
An Asda spokesperson said: ‘We launched our partnership with Blue Light Card during the pandemic to provide additional support for emergency workers and would like to thank them for the opportunity to work with them during the last five years.
‘Our focus now is on providing all our customers with outstanding value every time they visit our stores or shop with us online.’
Blue Light also sent an email out to customers, sharing the news.
It said: ‘This change is one of several adjustments Asda is making across its business as it implements its new everyday pricing approach.
‘You can continue using the current offer for the next two weeks, up to and including Tuesday, 27 May.’
Asda is the only supermarket linked to the Blue Light Card discount scheme.
What’s going on at Asda?
Radical changes are afoot at Asda. New boss Allan Leighton is on a mission to ramp up the chain’s customer base while cutting costs.
Amid a management restructure, the chain announced 200 job cuts in March. Many of those affected were connected to the group’s botched £800million IT upgrade.
Leighton also sacked 13 regional managers as part of an internal restructuring in January following Asda’s worst Christmas trading performance since 2015 last year.
Towards the end of 2024, Asda made nearly 500 staff redundant with immediate effect last November.
Big plans: Allan Leighton is the chair of Asda and is making changes at the grocer
Asda was acquired in 2020 from Walmart by billionaire brothers Zuber and Mohsin Issa in a £6.8billion deal with the backing of equity firm TDR Capital.
In August 2024, Lord Rose, Asda’s former chair, said he was ’embarrassed’ by the supermarket’s decline.
Mohsin Issa stepped down as chief executive of the struggling supermarket chain in September 2024.
In November 2024, Asda appointed former chief executive Leighton as its new chair.
Leighton, who led Asda from 1996 to 2000, is steering Britain’s third-largest supermarket chain through a critical period of transformation.
Supermarket price wars and loyalty pricing
Britain’s supermarkets are locked in a price war and are making rapid changes to their loyalty schemes and pricing strategies.
Sainsbury’s has been ramping up the number of products available via its Nectar loyalty card scheme.
In March 2025, Asda ramped up the price war between supermarkets and announced plans to slash the cost of 1,500 items by up to 45 per cent.
Leighton said he planned to ‘continue to invest in lowering prices across the rest of the year and beyond’.
The latest reductions meant the group, which has shed customers since its private equity takeover in 2021, has cut prices on almost 10,000 products – a third of its range – since the end of January.
Since the end of January 2025, Asda customers have not been able to earn Asda Pounds on the chain’s ‘star products’.
The decision followed Asda’s decision to ditch its promise to match prices with Aldi and Lidl.
Asda was the first supermarket to price match both Aldi and Lidl, but Tesco and Sainsbury’s had already promised to match Aldi.
Asda has now brought back its Rollback campaign via an advertising campaign fronted by personal trainer Joe Wicks.
In April, Sainsbury’s added more than 100 products to its Aldi Price Match lines.
Sainsbury’s is now offering around 800 products price-matched to Aldi in its stores, which, it claims, is ‘more than any other retailer.’
In April, Tesco said it expected to make lower profits this year as it faces a price war with Britain’s other major supermarkets.
Tesco’s chief executive Ken Murphy said that there had been an ‘intensification’ of competition across the industry.
Last month, Morrisons introduced a major change to its loyalty scheme. Holders of the More Card can now donate their loyalty points to Marie Curie if they wish to support the end-of-life charity’s work.
The supermarket said it has introduced the feature in response to requests from customers and employees wanting to put their points towards a charitable cause.
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