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. Expand Please be aware that 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 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 (Please note: If you are a family living in Wales, please visit our Wales application pages to apply.) 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 done so for at least six months, or three months if your child is less than six months old. You are eligible to work and apply for public funds Your child is not in Local Authority care You need to also have evidence of entitlement to any one of the following:* 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. *All of the above income evidence, needs to be the most recent award received and should contain the name of the main carer who has applied for the grant, and their current address as detailed on the grant application. Documents provided can be sent electronically or in paper form. Please note it is in your best interest to send copies of paper documents as we cannot return the originals. Should you send your evidence electronically it can be either through screenshot, photo or emailing into us. If you do not provide us with documentation showing the full legal name of yourself and the child/children applied for, this may delay the grant getting to you. Please be advised that carers allowance cannot be used as proof of income. You need to meet our Family Fund eligibility criteria and child eligibility criteria in order to be considered for a grant. If you would like to ask any questions or discuss our criteria before you make an application, please contact us. Read our frequently asked questions here.
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. Expand 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.
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. Expand Please be aware that 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. Family Fund uses its own Child and Young Person’s Eligibility Criteria to assess whether a child is eligible for a grant. This criteria is based on a social model of disability. Children and young people with additional support due to a disability, disabling condition or with a serious or life limiting illness meet our criteria if: There is evidence that their additional needs 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 They require a high level of additional support in three or more of Family Fund’s seven areas of support below. 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. Family Fund 'Seven Areas of Support' If your child needs additional support in at least three of the seven areas below, they are likely to be eligible for a grant: Personal care: Your child needs physical support with feeding, washing, toileting or moving and transferring. Access to social activities: Your child needs support engaging socially and taking part in activities. Education: Your child needs support with their education and learning. You will need to let us know who gives this assistance and in what ways. Communication: Your child needs support listening, speaking and understanding. Supervision and Vigilance: Your child needs supervision and measures in place to ensure their safety. 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. 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. Children and young people do not need a formal diagnosis to meet Family Fund criteria, but their additional support needs must arise from a disability or disabling condition. If you feel your child meets all of the necessary criteria, you can apply now. Please ensure that your family meet all of our general eligibility criteria which can be found on our 'Who do we help?' page.
After you apply What happens once you have sent in your application. Expand 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. For first-time applications You should hear from us within 10 weeks of us receiving your application. We may need to discuss your application with you over the phone. Watch the video below for more information. Please note: We are not visiting homes right now to keep everyone safe. If you’ve applied before You should hear from us within 10 weeks of us receiving your application. The length of time it will take us to process an application will depend on the number of applications we currently have and the funding available at any particular time. If you have not heard from us after 10 weeks, please contact us or you can log in to your online account to monitor progress. Once your grant has been awarded, you can see more information about how you can use it here. What can hold up an application? Before you send in an application, please check if it is completed fully. If your application form is incomplete or missing copies of the required documents, then we cannot consider it. If anything is missing, we will contact you and wait until this is complete before progressing. When looking at your application we may need to request further information. If we do, we will contact you by phone or in writing. This information will need to be sent to us before we can consider your application. If your application is unsuccessful A family 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.
Terms and Conditions Download our full terms and conditions. Expand Our full Terms and Conditions are downloadable by the link below. If you have any questions regarding them, please contact us.Download Terms and Conditions. Download Exceptions Policy