Are we eligible?
Grants are available for families living on a low income, raising a disabled or seriously ill child or young person whose additional support needs meet our child and young persons eligibility criteria.
These criteria are based on the Social model of disability meaning decisions are not based on medical diagnosis or if an award of Child Disability Payment (CDP), Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Adult Disability Payment (ADP) or Personal Independence payment (PIP) has been made. A child or young person must require a high level of additional support in three or more areas of our seven areas of support.
To submit an application, you must meet both the child and young person and household eligibility criteria below.
Child and young person eligibility
To establish if our criteria is met we need information about your child’s disability or serious illness.
If your child needs a high level of support in at least three of the areas below, you may be eligible to apply to us:
| Personal care: your child needs a high level of physical support with feeding, washing, toileting or moving and transferring. |
 | Access to social activities: your child needs a high level of support to engage socially, and take part in, activities. |
 | Education: your child needs a high level of support with education and learning. Please let us know who gives this assistance, and in what ways. |
 | Communication: your child needs a high level of support listening, speaking and understanding. |
 | Supervision and vigilance: your child needs a high level of supervision and measures to ensure their safety. |
 | Medical or therapeutic treatment, or condition management: your child needs a high level of support in the form of treatment or therapy. Please let us know what therapy your child is given, who does this, how often and when. |
 | Physical environment and specialist resources: your child needs a high level of support with physical adaptations and adjustments. Please let us know what specialist equipment or resources are used. |
If your child is in local authority care
Please note that Family Fund is not able to provide grants for children or young people 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.
Household eligibility
We support families on a low income from working, or receive 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
You will need to send us a copy of your most recent benefit entitlement. This can be a letter or a screenshot, showing the name of your family’s main carer, and current address.
You can still apply if you don’t receive any benefits. We just need you to provide some extra information about your household income, or speak to someone to confirm your family income and situation. Unfortunately, we are not usually able to award a grant if you have a significant level of household income, savings or capital.