March 2011 - East Riding of Yorkshire Primary Care Trust

MONEY MATTERS
Help for families who need us the
most
At the Family Fund, we know that almost
all families with disabled children and
young people face some form of financial
difficulty. Families struggle with the extra
costs of raising disabled children, which
can be at least three times higher than for
other children.
We know that there are so many families
that need our help and we have always
tried to make sure that our fixed funding
is spent fairly and wisely on supporting
families on the lowest of incomes.
In these difficult economic times, more
and more families are coming to us for
help, to meet the cost of the most basic
of needs. Many of these families are raising
more than one disabled child or have
larger families. Their need is great, but their
household income is outside of the Fund’s
income limit.
Because of this, the fund has worked
closer with families, and third party
organisations, to ensure our grants
are accessible to families that need us the
most.
To make sure we are helping families who
are on the lowest of incomes and in the
greatest need, the fund will be making a
change to its income criteria and will now
be guided by a family’s entitlement to
government financial support in the form
of benefit and tax credits.
This means that we will now consider a
grant application from any family caring for
a disabled child or young person aged 17
and under in England, Northern Ireland,
Scotland and Wales, where they are
eligible for, and can send us evidence of
entitlement to one the following:
Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit,
Income based Job Seekers Allowance,
Income Support, Incapacity Benefit,
Employment Support Allowance, Housing
Benefit and Pension Credit.
Families must still however meet all our
other eligibility criteria in order to be
eligible.
For more information please visit
www.familyfund.org.uk
14 www.fish.eastriding.gov.uk (01482) 396469