Welfare Grants Programme

Have right of residency in the UK or the Isle of Man.

Residents of the UK must be in receipt of one of the means-tested benefits listed below:

• Universal Credit with no deductions being made due to the level of savings.
• Pension Credit with no deductions being made due to the level of savings.

Residents of the Isle of Man must be in receipt of one of the following benefits:

• Income Support
• Manx Pension Supplement

All applicants must fall into one or more of the following priority areas:

• Mental Health Illness OR Neurodivergent Condition: Support for adults (over the age of 18) who have either a mental health illness OR a neurodivergent condition that has been clinically diagnosed by an NHS professional. We will require information including what the applicant’s clinical diagnosis is, the date of the diagnosis and how the illness affects the applicant’s daily life.
• Domestic Abuse: Support for families or individuals who have recently experienced domestic abuse. We will require information including how recent the abuse was and how it is directly impacting the applicant’s daily life.
• Older People: Support for those who have reached retirement age, which is currently people aged 66 and over. Please note that we will require ID for the applicant that shows proof of age, this can be a passport, driving license or birth certificate.
• Holidays for Women living in Greater London: Support to provide a recuperative holiday to recover health or strength after a long illness, physical or mental. The holiday must be applied for either during the illness or within 6 months of discharge from hospital or end of treatment and the application must be supported by evidence from an NHS professional. Please note this fund is for women, those who identify as women, trans women and their children (who are under 18 years old) who live in the Greater London area.

• Those who do not meet the criteria above.
• Asylum seekers or those with no recourse to public funds.
• Employees of the referring organisation and members of their family.
• Employees of Family Action and members of their family.
• Applicants who have already received a grant from Family Action within the past 2 years (24 months).

We are only able to accept applications from the following organisations:

• Charities that are registered as a charity with the Charity Commission of England and Wales
• Charities that are registered as a charity with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator
• Charites that are registered as a with the Charity Commission of Northern Ireland
• Charities registered in the Isle of Man and listed in the Isle of Man Register of Charities
• Charitable societies incorporated and registered under the Cooperative and Community Benefits Societies Act 2014
• Local Authorities,
• Housing Associations
• NHS Services /Health Authorities (CCGs)
• Manx Care and Isle of Man Government health and social care bodies
• Other statutory authorities such as probation services.

All referring organisations must:

• Provide health or social care.
• Have knowledge of and be able to assess the needs of the individual or family in need.
• Be providing on-going support to the applicant, not just a one off intervention.
• Have a bank account in its own name.*

Before an organisation is able to submit an application on behalf of service users we will carry out a due diligence process before accepting organisations as a suitable referral agency.  As part of this process most organisations will be required to provide evidence of the organisation’s bank account such as a bank statement, blank cheque or paying in slip before applications can be accepted. This applies to all organisations except Local and Statutory authorities and NHS services. Satisfactory evidence will only be required once.

• Individual members of the public. All applications must be submitted by authorised staff from a suitable organisation. Suitable organisations are listed in the section “Who can submit an application?”
• Staff of the referring organisation cannot apply for a grant for themselves, members of their family or other employees of the referring organisation.
• Any organisation that does not meet the criteria listed in “Who can submit an application?” such as schools or community interest companies (CICs).
• Work Coaches employed by the DWP/Jobcentre
• Organisations using generic email addresses such as gmail or hotmail.

Applications can be submitted when the fund is open, you can check what funds are available on the Welfare Grants page on our website at https://www.family-action.org.uk/what-we-do/grants/welfare-grants/. Dependant on funds available at any given time we may have to close with little or no notice. If funds are not available you can find information about the likely next opening dates on our website. Please check that funds are available before submitting an application. We are not able to alert organisations about when we will be opening or closing so it is important to check our website regularly.

The average grant for essential personal and household needs is likely to be in the region of £200 to a maximum of £300. Grants of up to £1,500 can be made for women’s holidays depending on the number of those eligible for funding, e.g. the applicant and any dependent children under 18 years of age.

We are only able to consider one grant application per applicant in any 2 year (24 month) period.

Our welfare grants programme primarily provides emergency grants for basic and essential personal and household needs such as cookers, washing machines, fridge/freezers, beds and bedding. We can also provide grants for clothing and basic smartphones. Holidays for women resident in Greater London can be provided for those who meet the criteria above.

Items we will not fund include: day to day living expenses; food; bills; travel; laptops or tablets; televisions; school uniforms; rent payments, deposits or arrears; council tax arrears; debts; fines; moving costs; funeral expenses (including associated expenses, such as headstones); gifts (such as toys for birthdays, Christmas or other festivals); loans; bankruptcy or insolvency costs; items already purchased; driving lessons; citizenship applications; legal fees; passport applications; costs associated with employment or education; sponsorship; general appeals; funding for projects or groups; disability/mobility aids including sensory toys and equipment; holidays (except holidays for women living in Greater London that meet the criteria above).

All applications for residents of the UK will be required to provided evidence that the applicant is in receipt of Universal Credit or Pension Credit at the time the application is submitted so we require one of the following:

• A complete copy of the current Universal Credit statement showing the amount awarded, how this is calculated and details of any deductions made. We require the statement to be for the month prior to the application being submitted if the current statement is not available.  Older statements will not be accepted as evidence that the applicant is in receipt of UC
• A complete copy of the most recent Pension Credit award letter showing pension credit awarded and any deductions made.

All applications for residents of the Isle of Man will be required to provide evidence that the applicant is in receipt of one or more of the following at the time the application is submitted:  Income Support or Manx Pension Supplement.  We will require a bank statement for the applicant, that is less than 2 months old, shows receipt of one or more of the above benefits, the applicant’s name, address, sort code and account number and all balances.

If you are making an application under the “older people” priority group you will also be required to provide evidence of age, e.g. passport or driving licence.

If you are making an application under the “Women living in Greater London” priority group you will also be required to provide evidence that the applicant is recovering from a long physical or mental illness such as a letter from a NHS professional. Please note that recuperative holidays can only be applied for during a course of treatment OR within 6 months of discharge from hospital/end of treatment.

If you are requesting that payment is paid to your organisation we will require proof of your organisations bank details if this has not been provided through the registration process.

Prior to submitting an application on behalf of an applicant it is essential that you obtain their informed consent to ensure they understand how information provided on the application form will be used and to obtain their consent to their data being processed by Family Action, for the purposes of making an application for a grant.

You will be asked to confirm that you have received the informed consent of the applicant before submitting an application on their behalf on the application form.

Full details are provided in the Terms and Conditions which you need to confirm you have read before completing an application.

Temporary Closure: Our Welfare Grants Programme is now closed for new applications until 9am on 1st August 2026. You cannot register or apply for Welfare grants until we reopen. Applications that have already been submitted and are deferred will still be processed if you forward through the required information.

1. Press CTRL and click on this link which will take you to the application form:
2. Enter your email address and click on the link to continue. Please note:  You will not be able to submit an application unless your email address has a suitable domain name such as “org.uk” or “nhs.uk”.  Generic emails such as “gmail.com” are not acceptable.
3. If you are new to the system, the system will ask you a few basic questions about you before creating your account. It will then email you a temporary password.
4. Click on the link provided in the email and follow the instructions to set up your account password. Once you have set up a password it can be used for all applications.
5. Click “Create a new Welfare application” and complete the application form.
6. The application is saved automatically as you move from one page to another. If you wish to save your application form and return to it later click the save button on the last screen completed.
7. Click “Submit” to send your application to Family Action. Note:  After you click “submit” you will not be able to make changes as you will no longer be able to access the application.

NOTE:  Once you have a password it can be used for all applications.  If you forget your password just follow the instructions on the screen to create a new password.

Temporary Closure: Our Welfare Grants Programme is now closed for new applications until 9am on 1st August 2026. You cannot register or apply for Welfare grants until we reopen. Applications that have already been submitted and are deferred will still be processed if you forward through the required information.

1. Press CTRL and click on this link:
2. Enter your email address and click on the link.
3. When prompted, enter your password and click on the link. If you forget your password just follow the instructions on the screen to create a new password.
4. Either click on “create a welfare application” OR select an incomplete application by clicking on the application number to continue.

Email the Grants Service at [email protected] detailing your problem and using screen grabs to illustrate your problem, if appropriate. The grants service will get back to you as quickly as possible. We review all emails and if our automated response does not answer your questions we will reply individually and telephone if necessary if a contact number is provided.

We are only able to offer limited telephone support so in the first instance please email your enquiry to [email protected]. Our telephone helpline is currently open between 1pm to 3pm from Tuesday to Thursday. Calls will not be taken outside these hours however you can always email us. 

1. You will immediately receive an automated email providing you with a unique reference number for the application submitted (please quote this number in any future correspondence) and the date of the meeting at which the application will be considered by the grants panel. A copy of the application form submitted is attached to this email.
2. You will be informed of the grants panel’s decision, by email, within 2 working days of the meeting date at which the application is considered.
3. If the grant application is deferred then you will have 2 weeks in which to provide the information asked for so that the application can be assessed. If the information has not been received within 2 weeks then the application may be made unsuccessful. If you wish to appeal this decision and can supply the information requested when the application was deferred we will be happy to reconsider our decision providing sufficient funds remain available. See below on how to appeal.

Payment of grants to successful applicants will either be made by BACS to the referring organisation OR by an Argos eGift card to the beneficiary. The referring organisation will make the choice as to which payment method is preferred on the application form.

• If the payment is to be made to the referring organisation by BACS payment takes 3 working days from the date it is confirmed that the application has been successful.
• If the payment is to be made by Argos eGift card Family Action will email the beneficiary direct with the pin code with which they can activate their eGift card when it arrives from Argos so a personal email address of the beneficiary must be provided on the application form. Argos eGift cards cannot be sent to the referring organisations email address.  Please note it can take up to 5 working days for the Argos eGift card to arrive from the date it is confirmed that the application has been successful. The eGift card may be used at any Argos store, or online at argos.co.uk

Payment options for Family Action service users are detailed on the application form.

In order to be able to provide the generous donors, our supporters and the wider community with the assurance that donations are directly benefiting those eligible to apply to this grants programme, we need to be able to demonstrate the difference the award of a grant has as made to student.

Feedback will be requested from the member of staff who submitted the application via email, or otherwise, as determined by us from time to time. The feedback provided must be anonymised and not include any personal data about the applicant.

We reserve the right to refuse to consider further applications for an individual or further applications from the referring organisation if we consider that feedback requested has unreasonably failed to be provided.

We reserve the right to request evidence that any grant payment made has been used for the purpose set out in the application.

The majority of unsuccessful applications are because the applicant does not meet our eligibility criteria so it is very important to check these before taking the time to submit an application.  The other key reason is because funds are not available – we have allocated all the funds.

Eligibility criteria are published on the website where we also publish updates on funds available at any given time so it is important that you read ALL information available on the website before submitting your application.

If your grant application is unsuccessful and you would like us to review our decision we are happy to do so on receipt of an email detailing the reasons why you feel a review is required.  In your email please provide the unique reference number of the application in the subject line of the email and send it to [email protected]  We will respond to each review request individually as soon as we can which will usually be within 7 working days.

Please note we will only enter into correspondence with the referring organisation that submitted the application. 

Email:             [email protected]

Post:               With regret we are unable to acknowledge or respond to postal enquiries unless an email address is provided.

Phone:           07816 408119 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 1pm to 3pm. Calls will not be taken outside these hours however you can always email us.

NOTE: The grants service is open between 9.00 a.m. and 3.00 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The grants service is closed on Monday and Friday.