Who can we help?
This category of grant provides a twice yearly payment to ladies who meet the following criteria:
- Ladies must live alone (widowed, divorced, separated or single)
- Ladies must be in receipt of State Pension and/or Pension Credit
- Ladies must have lived in a West Midlands county and no more than 60 miles from Birmingham Town Hall for at least the last five years
- Ladies’ income must be less than £262 per week (see below for our definition of income)
- Ladies’ savings must be less than £10,000 (current account balances must be included with any other savings, but the first £1,000 of the lady's main current account may be disregarded)
- Ladies must have a bank, building society or post office account in their sole name which can accept BACs payments
- All the above are subject to review at each Trustees' Meeting
What is counted as a lady's income?
A lady's total weekly income must be less than £262 for her to be eligible for a twice yearly grant.
Income includes all:
- Pensions
- Earnings
- Disability payments e.g. attendance allowance, disability living allowance, personal independence payments, motability car equivalent
- Bereavement allowance
Income does not include:
- Housing benefit and other financial support specifically for housing costs
- Council tax reduction
- Winter fuel and cold weather payments
- The warm home discount scheme
- One-off or time-limited support related to the current cost of living and energy crises e.g. the energy bills support scheme, cost of living payments and the household support fund
How to re-apply for an award
On receipt of the Spring grant, a short re-application must be completed in order to qualify for the next two grants. Re-applications should be received by 31 August. A re-application no longer needs to be completed on receipt of the Autumn grant.
Organisations making online grant re-applications on behalf of ladies
- You will be sent a list of ladies eligible to re-apply in early June each year.
- Please read these guidelines, the additional Supplementary Guidance on Supporting Evidence and the online Privacy Notice in full and provide the Privacy Notice to the applicant before proceeding to make a re-application.
- You will need the applicant’s full explicit consent to re-apply for a grant on their behalf. Please ensure that you complete the box on the online re-application form confirming explicit consent.
- Re-applications should be completed in full.
- Incomplete applications can be saved and re-visited prior to submission.
- Once you have submitted a re-application you will receive an email notifying you that your re-application has been received. Your re-application will be allocated a unique application number, please quote this number when contacting us.
- Re-applications may take 2–4 weeks to be assessed and are assessed in date order.
- Any follow up queries will be emailed to you and we may request supplementary documents to support the re-application.
Individual ladies re-applying directly
- A re-application form will be sent to you by post in early June.
- Please read the Privacy Notice at the end of the re-application form in full before completing and returning your re-application form.
- Re-application forms should be completed in full and signed by you.
- Please return your signed and completed re-application form to the Charity at the address below, along with any documentation requested (these will be returned to you).
- You will be notified of any follow up queries and we may request supplementary documents to support your re-application.
Is there a right to appeal?
There is no right of appeal. The decision whether to award a grant is solely at the discretion of the Trustees of the Charity. If you wish us to review a decision based on additional information that you wish to be considered, please provide this in writing to the Charity Administrator by email or post.