What are grants?
As well as any financial assistance that may be available to you through welfare benefits, you may qualify for a grant from a grant-giving charity.
A grant is a sum of money that a grant-giving charity gives to people in need who qualify for their help. It is given as a gift or award, so it does not have to be paid back.
A grant may be a regular amount (sometimes called an on-going grant) given to help you, if you are in financial need, to pay some of your bills and boost a low income. It may also be an amount of money given once (sometimes called a one-off or specific grant) to pay for a particular item, such as a piece of disability equipment or white goods such as a refrigerator or washing machine that you cannot do without. Some grant-giving charities also provide educational grants to help you meet some of the costs of courses you are taking to improve your job prospects or for personal development.
There are thousands of grant-giving charities that provide grants to people who meet their qualifying rules. In most cases they have been set up to assist people in financial need who have something in common, such as:
- Particular disabilities or illnesses
- Jobs or industries that a person is currently or was previously working in
- Faiths
- Nationalities
- Living in a particular area of the UK
- Trying to manage on a low income
- A specific age group, e.g. ‘older people’ or ‘children and ‘young people aged under 18’.
Many grant-giving charities also help the dependents of people their fund was set up to support – e.g. their partners, ex-partners or children.
Some will be ‘open to all’. This generally means that the only qualification you must have to apply for help is that you are in financial need.
Many grant-giving charities help people who are currently working or have previously worked in particular types of jobs or industries. Each charity will have its own rules about how long you have to have been in a job or industry to qualify for help.
Last updated: 7 September 2009