Charitable Trust - Financial assistance in times of health-related hardship

Grants can be for a variety of needs such as helping with the cost of medical treatments not available through the NHS or Benenden Health membership, purchasing specialist equipment, or simply by providing some breathing space if your circumstances mean you struggle with everyday living costs.

The majority of our grants are under £1,000, but we can consider requests for up to £5,000.

We can help members and former members of Benenden Health, as well as friends and family named on another person's membership. We also accept non-member referrals from our selected partner charities (Charity For Civil Servants, The Rowland Hill Fund, BT Benevolent Fund and Hospital Saturday Fund). Please note that we do not accept applications from non-members directly.

If you’re not sure, call us on 0800 414 8450 (Mon-Fri 8am-4pm).

You can download a printable application form from the link below, or you can request one by calling 0800 414 8450* (Mon-Fri 8am-4pm).

Whether you would like to discuss your individual situation or need help in completing your application, we are happy to advise you. You can also read our grant making principles for a more detailed explanation of what we can help with.

We will write to you to acknowledge your application within 3 working days of receipt. If we need any more information we will contact you to ask for this.

Once we have all the information we need, it usually takes around 2-4 weeks to reach a decision, but for complex requests it can take longer than this.

Find out more by viewing our FAQs 

If you have any questions which are not answered, please use our enquiry form and one of our team will be in touch soon.

Alternatively, you can call us on 0800 414 8450* (Mon-Fri 8am-4pm ).

The charity exists to relieve hardship and distress caused by sickness, infirmity, disability or any medical condition by providing financial assistance.

Applicants must be a Member, former Member, or Nominee, of Benenden. Applications from individuals who do not satisfy these eligibility criteria will be considered only through referral from selected charities.

Yes. The Charity considers the full circumstances of the applicant and their household, and the background to their individual situation. To make a decision, evidence is needed of all income, savings and capital, and all outstanding liabilities for all members of the household. Assistance will not normally be provided where overall savings are more than £15,000.

This information is used to get a picture of your full circumstances and therefore your needs. Without it we cannot understand the full picture and so won’t be able to make a decision on what help we can provide.

We’ll need details and supporting documents such as full monthly bank statements and relevant bills. We look at all your income and expenditure, so this includes housing costs, utility bills and household expenditure. We’ll ask about savings or assets and we also need to know about any debts, arrears or outstanding bills. If you are asking for help with the cost of medical treatment, or the provision of other, non-medical, products or services (e.g. stair lifts, home repairs, etc.), we will need copies of formal estimates, quotes or invoices for these costs.

All applications are considered individually. We’ll look to see what the unexpected need is and where we can be of most help. If it’s an emergency, we may be able to offer a one-off payment to provide some breathing space to allow applicants to put other measures in place or seek further advice.

It is unusual for the Charity to make a grant of more than £5,000, and the majority of grants are for less than £1,000.

Where an applicant's needs are more than £5,000 (e.g. where high value medical treatment is needed), the Charity may seek to share costs with other relevant organisations. Applicants will also be encouraged to look at what alternative resources are available to them and where appropriate, to pursue alternative sources of funding (e.g. commercial loans, help from friends and family, or other charitable organisations). If there is still a shortfall the Charity may consider providing financial assistance towards that amount.

No. The charity's decision on an application is final.

We can’t provide advice, but may be able to signpost you to an organisation where you will be able to request advice in these areas. 

We work closely with the Charity for Civil Servants, Rowland Hill Fund and BT Benevolent Fund. We are also continually looking to establish new relationships with other charitable organisations.

We collect your personal information to enable us to fully consider your application and to discuss with you how we may be able to help. We will only share information with third parties (e.g. partner charities) when it may be of benefit to you and you have given your prior consent. View our Privacy policy.

You can speak with a member of our team by calling 0800 414 8450* (Monday – Friday 8-4pm) or you can email charitabletrust@benenden.co.uk

You need to have the person’s full consent to make an enquiry on their behalf. If the person named in the application is not able to sign the form, the person applying on their behalf would be asked to provide documentation confirming that they are authorised to act on their behalf. This could be evidence of an active Power of Attorney or some other form of documentation such as a letter from the applicant him/herself or from the GP, DWHP or other official source.

We can only send an application form to the person who contacts us. We cannot send the form to anyone if they have not asked for it themselves, as it would be considered unsolicited mail.

No. We provide one off grants to assist with a short term problem, to help reduce clients’ dependency on charitable funds over time

After we receive your enquiry, we’ll contact you within a few days to let you know we have received it. We may need further information in order to make a decision. The more information you can provide with your application, the more quickly we can deal with it.

In normal circumstances, the outcome of an application will be notified to the applicant within two working weeks of receipt of all requested information.