Guide to grants...

The Society assists women domiciled and habitually resident in the United Kingdom who are living alone in their own home (either owned or rented) and in genuine need, irrespective of age or social status. We generally assist women who are not eligible for help from any other trade, professional or Service benevolent fund. However, contributions may be made towards expensive items in conjunction with other charities. Unfortunately at the present time we cannot consider applications from women who are working for 16 hours or more per week.

We help women in a number of ways:

• By providing one-off grants for essential items such as basic furniture, household white goods and appliances, property repairs etc.

• With regular allowances paid monthly

• By sending birthday and Christmas cards to our regular beneficiaries

• By sign-posting to other potential sources of funding

All beneficiaries are receiving means-tested benefits of some kind. In cases where income is above our normal limits for regular assistance, a single grant for a specific essential item may be appropriate.

At present we consider women for regular assistance where they have savings of less than £8,000. Where we assist with a single grant the capital limit is £1,000 (after the applicant’s contribution towards the cost of the item). These criteria are subject to periodic review by the Trustees.

For an informal discussion please telephone us on 0800 5874696 - the helpline is open Monday - Friday 9.00 a.m. - 1.00 p.m. and 2.00 p.m. - 4.30 p.m. or complete the enquiry form and we will call you. PLEASE NOTE THAT AT THE PRESENT TIME IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO DOWNLOAD AN APPLICATION FORM OR APPLY ON LINE.

Unlike some charities we do not have either paid or volunteer fieldworkers who can visit applicants. We therefore rely on the completion of the application form, and the provision of supporting documents. If these are complete we can usually give a firm decision within a few days. However, we cannot give a decision until we receive all of the documents that we have requested, and we do ask applicants and their professional advisers to help us give a quick response by ensuring that the paperwork is complete before it is submitted.

You can see some examples of the help that we give.