Scottish Autism have partnered with The Care Workers’ Charity to provide grants to help colleagues who are currently experiencing hardship. The grant is available to help you with specific financial needs in times of increased cost of living and unexpected major expenses. The fund is limited and should be accessed by those who need it most- there is no entitlement.
Grants of up to £350 are available. In exceptional circumstances more may be granted but this is at the discretion of our grant assessors. The fund arrangements are as simple as possible. Your privacy will be respected and your information will be handled with care.
Do you qualify for a grant?
- The fund is available to contracted employees who have served at least 3 complete calendar months’ service
Who is not eligible?
- Casual workers
- Employees who are suspended or in disciplinary procedures, including any live warning for performance, conduct or absence
- Employees leaving or serving notice
- If you receive a grant from this fund once, you are not able to apply again
What can the funds be used for?
Examples of expenses which funds can be used for are:
- Replacing essential whitegoods that have broken
- Unexpectedly high utilities bills (change to utility bills)
- Essential household items
- Moving costs
- Health improvement aids and adaptations
- Travel expenses to hospital
- Essential household repairs
- Car repairs
- Funeral costs
The fund will open quarterly and will remain open until we reach our quarterly budget. When the budget has been reached the fund will close and reopen the following quarter. If the fund is noted as closed, please check back on this page for the date and time of when the fund will reopen.
The grants will be independently assessed by the Grants Team of the Care Workers’ Charity, and eligible grants will be paid out once approved. You can apply for a grant towards more than one expense – please provide as much evidence as possible. The team aim to turn applications round within two working weeks subject to receiving the necessary documents.
THESE GRANTS DO NOT NEED TO BE PAID BACK.
The maximum amount you can apply for is £350 although you are not guaranteed to receive this. This will be at the discretion of the Grants Team.
Do you take my finances into account when assessing my application?
The grants team are interested in your financial situation. This can help give us an overall picture, particularly if you are also receiving benefits. You will not be excluded from receiving a grant based on your financial information. Supplying supporting documents with your request helps the Grants Team to assess need.
What supporting documents do I need to submit?
- You must include a bank statement. Your name, bank account number and sort code need to be clearly visible. We need this so we can double-check the bank details on your application are current and accurate. The content of the statement is not required.
- You should include supporting documentation that will help strengthen your grant claim for example:
- Rent/ Mortgage/council taxrepayments or arrears
- Car repairs (invoices/quotes)
- White goods or household items (invoice/quotes, evidence that shows not financially affordable)
- Home repairs (invoice/quotes, evidence that shows not financially affordable)
What’s the application process?
- You complete an on-line form and your application comes into the Care Workers’ Charity Grants Team
- You receive an email which gives you an application reference code which begins with GA followed by a series of numbers. Keep hold of that number in case you want to check how your application is progressing
- The email will come from grants@thecwc.org.uk – it may be in your spam email
- The team check that you meet the eligibility criteria, and that you are currently employed by Scottish Autism
- The team check that you’ve included your bank statement, and other supporting evidence such as bills
- The Grants Team will email you or contact you if there is anything missing or if they have any queries. Please respond to their email as soon as you can; we can’t pay you without the required information. Their emails will come from grants@thecwc.org.uk
- Once everything is checked and ok, a team member will mark your application as ‘eligible’
- Another team member does a final check, and approves your application if everything is correct and the grant is awarded or notifies you if it is not
- Your details are uploaded onto our system, ready for payment and you receive an email confirming that payment will be made and will go into your bank account within five working days (during bank holidays there may be a short delay)
- The money goes into your bank account
What happens when I apply?
- Your application comes into the Care Workers’ Charity Grants Team
- You receive an email which gives you your application reference code which begins with GA followed by a series of numbers. Keep hold of that number in case you want to check how your application is doing
- You will receive an outcome notification and money will be transferred if granted
- Scottish Autism will only receive anonymised summary data of how the fund is being used unless you opt to provide further information