Community Care Grants
Key information
Community Care Grants can help with expenses like
furniture, clothing and household equipment. They can be used
to buy essential items if lack of these items is causing you
stress or affecting the health of yourself or
your children. These grants do not have to be paid
back.
Applies to: England, Scotland, Wales, Northern
Ireland
Age rules: No specific age rules
Taxable: No
Administered by: Department for Work and
Pensions
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Who does it help?
Community Care Grants help people with expenses like furniture,
clothing and household equipment so they can live in the community
or so families can stay together to help people cope with special
difficulties.
To be eligible for a Community Care Grant, you have to be
getting:
You might also qualify if you are going to leave institutional
or residential care in the next six weeks. This includes places
like prison, hospital, local authority care or a care home. You
must also be likely to get one of the benefits above when you
leave.
Any Community Care Grant you can get will be reduced if you or
your partner has savings of more than £500. This amount is
£1,000 if one of you is aged 60 or over. If you have more savings
than this, but not enough to pay for the item or service you need,
you can apply for a Community Care Grant to make up the
difference.
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What help does it provide?
You can get a Community Care Grant for expenses that will help
you, or a member of your family, to:
- Get established in the community following a stay in
institutional or residential care, or
- Stay in the community rather than go into care.
You can also get one to ease exceptional pressures on you or
your family, for example, if the lack of an essential item is
causing you stress or affecting the health of your
children.
A grant could cover things like moving costs if you have to
leave home because of domestic violence. They can also be paid
to help people set up home after having an unsettled way of life as
part of a planned programme to resettle them.
A Community Care Grant could help you, or a member of your
family, with travel expenses, including the cost of overnight
accommodation, for example, to:
- Visit someone who is ill
- Attend a relative’s funeral
- Ease a domestic crisis
- Move to suitable accommodation.
There are lots of things a Community Care Grant will not cover,
for example:
- Domestic help or respite care
- Repairs to local authority or housing association homes
- School meals
- School uniforms.
The help comes in the form of money that is usually paid into
your bank or building society account. In some cases it can
be paid at a post office. You have to use the money for the
reason you applied for the grant.
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How much does it pay?
The minimum amount you can claim is usually £30. There is no
maximum amount.
These grants do not count as income and do not affect other
benefits you may be getting.
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