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  1. FAQs

Family Applications

If you are raising a disabled or seriously ill child or young adult and living the UK then we can consider your application

Who do we help?

We help families across the UK who are raising a disabled or seriously ill child or young person aged 17 or under. Find out if you could be eligible.

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We help families across the UK who are raising a disabled or seriously ill child or young person aged 17 or under. You can apply to Family Fund if:

  • You live in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales.

  • You are the parent or carer of a disabled or seriously ill child or young person aged 0-17 who lives with you.

  • You are currently living in the UK and have done so for at least six months, or three months if your child is less than six months old.

  • Your child is not in Local Authority care. This does not include children who are classified as a ‘Child in Need’ under Section 17 of the Children’s Act 1989 (England and Wales), and Section 23 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, and Section 17 of The Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995.

  • You can share evidence of your benefit entitlement to any one of the following benefits:

Universal Credit

Child Tax Credit

Working Tax Credit

Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance

Income Related Employment Support Allowance

Income Support

Housing Benefit

Pension Credit.

  • Your child or young person has a high level of additional support needs arising from a long-term disability or disabling condition or a serious or life limiting illness. By long term we mean lasting or likely to last 12 months or more. Please read our child and young person eligibility criteria to see if you meet the criteria in this area.

Within the application, we will ask to see proof that the criteria has been met. We will need to see the most recent letter of benefit entitlement containing the name of the main carer who has applied for the grant and their current address as stated on the application. Carers allowance cannot be used as proof of income.

In certain circumstances where the main carer has No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) we do not need income confirmation, but will need to speak to a third party to verify family income and situation.

If you do not meet the above household eligibility criteria, you may still apply but you will need to provide extra information about your household income. Our grants are discretionary and subject to available funding. We may decline an application where a family has a significant level of savings, capital or household income.

If you feel your child meets all of the necessary criteria, you can apply now.

Eligibility  Apply now

Published: 14th July, 2015

Updated: 7th July, 2022

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What can we apply for?

We will look at any grant request that relates to the needs of your disabled or seriously ill child, young person and your family.

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Please note: If you are a family living in Wales, please visit our Wales application pages to find out more about grants available.

We will look at any grant request that relates to the needs of your disabled or seriously ill child, young person and your family, as long as the item requested is not the responsibility of a statutory agency.  A statutory agency includes places such as local authorities or health services. 

Our most frequently requested grants include washing machines, sensory toys, family breaks, bedding, tablets, furniture, outdoor play equipment, clothing, and computers. We offer grants for many more things too, and are happy for you to contact us with requests for things that you think will help meet your child's additional needs.

See our grant items here.

When applying, think about what would make a difference to you and your child. We consider grant requests in order of priority.  If you would like to ask for more than one item, make sure you tell us what is the most important item first.

We have limited funding and we may not be able to help with everything you have asked for, especially where items are of a high value.

Once we have made a decision on your application, you will receive an award letter to explain whether or not we can provide a grant and how it will be provided. Please check your award letter for details on how to use your grant. If you have any questions about your award letter, please contact us.

Our grants are provided through a range of suppliers. Using suppliers allows us to arrange discounts to ensure our funding goes further and helps more families.  For some grants we may make a BACS (bank) payment direct to a nominated bank account.

Find out more about the main suppliers we work with.

Read some of our families’ stories to see what sort of things other people have been helped with.

Changing your requests

We can consider changing your request.

If you have not heard about your application but wish to change your grant request, please visit the contact us page, and select the ‘I would like to change my grant request’ drop down option.

If you have received your award letter, please be advised that we can only consider changing your request within three months of the original award date. To do this, please email us with details on why you would like to change your grant, what you would like to change it to and how it will meet your child’s extra care needs.

Please note: There may be a delay in receiving your grant item due to the impact of Coronavirus on our team and suppliers. Please visit our Coronavirus page for more information.

We are not able to consider requests for:

  • A car, other vehicle or driving lessons
  • Items already purchased
  • Requests where a statutory agency (such as local authorities or health services) has assessed a need and have a responsibility to provide the item.

Apply now

Published: 15th July, 2015

Updated: 24th September, 2021

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Child and young person eligibility criteria

We use our own child and young person's eligibility criteria. Read through to see if you may be eligible for support.

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Family Fund uses its own Child and Young Person’s Eligibility Criteria to assess if your child is eligible for a grant. This criteria is based on the social model of disability. 



As the criteria is based on the social model of disability, children and young people do not need a formal diagnosis to apply, however their additional support need must arise from a disability or disabling condition.  

If your child requires additional support due to their disability, disabling condition or they have a serious or life limiting illness, they may meet our criteria if:

  • There is evidence that their condition mean that their family is not able to enjoy ordinary life. This may be because the degree of planning and support needed to support their child is much greater than that usually required to meet the needs of children.

and

  • Their condition is long term or life limiting. When we refer to long term we mean lasting or likely to last 12 months or more.

and

  • They require a high level of additional support in three or more of Family Fund’s seven areas of support below.

 

If your child requires a high degree of planning and support to meet their needs, has a long term or life limiting condition and meets three or more of the following seven areas of support, they are likely to be eligible for a Family Fund grant.

 

‘Seven areas of support’


  1. Personal care: Your child needs a high level of physical support with feeding, washing, toileting or moving and transferring.

 

  1. Access to social activities: Your child needs a high level of support engaging socially and taking part in activities.

 

  1. Education: Your child needs a high level of support with their education and learning. You will need to let us know who gives this assistance and in what ways.

 

  1. Communication: Your child needs a high level of support listening, speaking and understanding.

 

  1. Supervision and Vigilance: Your child needs a high level of supervision and measures in place to ensure their safety.

 

  1. Medical or therapeutic treatment or condition management: Your child needs support in the form of treatment or therapy. You will need to let us know what therapy is given, who does this, how often and when.

 

  1. Physical environment and specialist resources: Your child needs physical adaptations and adjustments to help them. You will need to let us know what specialist equipment or resources are used.


If you feel your child meets all of the necessary criteria, you can apply now. Please ensure that your family meet all of our household eligibility criteria which can be found on our who do we help? page.


Who do we help?  Apply now

Published: 17th July, 2015

Updated: 28th June, 2022

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After you apply

What happens once you have sent in your application.

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Once you have submitted your application, if all the correct documentation was included, our grants team will start processing the application. If we need any further information once we have received your application, a member of the team will be in touch.

Please be reassured that we aim to process applications as quickly as possible. We will be in touch with you as soon as a decision has been made or if there has been a change in the application.

We aim to make contact with you within 10 weeks from the date we received your application, however a final decision on your application may take a little longer.

 


What can hold up an application?

Before you send in an application, please check you have answered all the questions in full and included copies of the documents we ask for.

We will not be able to process your application until application is complete and we have received all the required documents.  

If your application form is incomplete or if we are missing copies of all the documents, we request to see, then we will not be able to process the application until we have all the information we need.

If anything is missing, we will contact you by phone or in writing

We may be in contact to request additional reports relating to your child’s disability or condition.

 


What is a telephone or virtual assessment?

Sometimes we need a bit more information in order to assess if your child or young person meets our child and young person eligibility criteria.

As part of the application process, we want to get to know your family. Once you have applied, we may get in touch to arrange a time for a chat to find out more about your families situation. This could be either over the telephone or through a virtual video call,. This allows us to establish how we can provide help. A Family Fund Independent Assessor will then be touch for a chat.

The assessments are an opportunity to talk about the grant you requested, as well as your child’s day-to-day life and the additional support they need. It would be helpful for you to have any additional documentation to hand during the assessment, such as an EHCP or your child’s medical information.

The assessment is also an opportunity for our Independent Assessor to provide additional local and national support through signposting.

 


How long will it take for a decision to be made?

Once we have received your application, the team will be working hard to assess the application and, if your family are eligible, award a grant for your child or young person. Due to the volume of applications we receive, we aim to make contact within 10 weeks of receiving a full application, however a final decision may not have been made in this time, due to the volume of applications we receive.  

Please be assured our grants team work as quickly as possible to process all applications.

If you have applied to Family Fund and are still waiting on a decision, use the track my application function for an update on what stage your application is at. 


Can I change my request?

Once you have submitted an application, or up three months after we award a grant, we can consider changing your request.

If you have not heard about your application yet, but wish to change your grant request, please visit our contact us page and let us know your new grant request.

If it has been less than three months since we have awarded your grant, we are able to consider a change of grant. Please visit our contact us page and let us know about your new grant request.

Please be aware that if you decide to request a change of grant, it may take a number of weeks for the team to process your request. 

 


If your application is unsuccessful

You can ask for any decision on an application to be reconsidered. This is called an appeal. If you are not happy with the decision on your application, please read our complaints and appeals procedure.

Appeals and complaints must be made within two months of the decision or issue.

We strive to ensure that all appeals and complaints are:

  • Looked into fully
  • Responded to quickly
  • Handled fairly
  • Resolved satisfactorily

To make an appeal or complaint, please contact us.

Published: 18th July, 2015

Updated: 13th July, 2022

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Terms and Conditions

Download our full terms and conditions.

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Our full terms and conditions and exceptions policy are downloadable using the links below.  If you have any questions regarding them, please contact us.

Download terms and conditions

Download exceptions policy

Published: 19th August, 2015

Updated: 6th April, 2022

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Family Fund Trust. Private company limited by guarantee. Incorporated in England and Wales. Registration no. 3166627. Registered charity no. 1053866. Scottish charity no. SC040810. Family Fund Trust is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under reference number 912508.



   

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