Financial Grants

If you’re struggling financially, you might be eligible for a GroceryAid financial grant. Our grants are here to support you, and don’t need to be paid back.

What is GroceryAid?

GroceryAid supports those who are working or have worked in grocery, who live and have been employed in the UK (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). This includes anyone who works for a supermarket, wholesaler, manufacturer, supplier, convenience store, independent grocer, petrol forecourt store or service provider to the grocery industry. We also support businesses in the foodservice wholesale sector and Vape stores/manufacturers. Grocery is considered fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sold in supermarkets or grocery stores.

What can we help with?

We can support you with a financial grant if:

• You’re experiencing an unexpected drop in household income that means you cannot meet your priority bills

  We can help with a grant to make things a little easier if your household income has recently reduced due to ill health, job loss, unpaid leave or an unexpected change in situation. The loss of income must be significant enough to cause financial difficulty.

• A traumatic event is causing a financial crisis

  Examples of a traumatic event may include but are not limited to, having to leave your property unexpectedly at short notice, you or your family are involved in a major incident or crime.

• Someone in your household has a long-term disability or illness

  We can help with a grant to make your life a little easier if your household is in receipt of benefits such as PIP, DLA, Carers Allowance or if you have limited capability for work and work related activity.

• You’re currently homeless or at risk of homelessness

  We may be able to help with a payment towards rent arrears to prevent eviction, or a deposit for a new property if you are homeless. We may refer you to Shelter for a specialist caseworker to provide advice and help you negotiate the best plan before a grant is considered.

• You need financial help if you have left an abusive relationship or when starting again after a relationship breakdown

  We may be able to help if you need to start again with a grant towards housing, moving or set up costs. We will ask you to provide us with details of a plan, evidence of a change in benefits, address change, or that you are working with a support agency.

• You're struggling with the cost of living

  We know that costs like housing, energy, food and travel have risen sharply. We can help with a one off cost of living grant of up to £300 per household, if you are in receipt of Universal Credit or Tax Credits. Please remember to select ‘Cost of Living’ as the reason for your application.

What evidence do I need to apply?

• Employment

  If you are currently employed in Grocery and have been for at least six months –

  Your last six months of payslips, (if paid weekly, one for each month) including your most recent. OR Your last P60 and most recent payslip.

  Or

  If you are no longer employed, was your last job in the grocery industry, and can you provide evidence of at least five years of experience in this field?

  In addition, your grocery employment must have ended for one of the following:

  • Retirement
  • Illness demonstrated by disability benefits
  • Caring for a household member who is ill or disabled
  • Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment rights (TUPE)
  • Redundancy and in receipt of our of work benefits

  If you are no longer working in grocery, then you will need an HMRC report to apply. In addition, if your report contains any Agency work in grocery you will need to request evidence from the Agency that this work was in grocery.

  The quickest way to get an HMRC report is to apply online as below, if you don’t have online access please click here. Please be aware this may take up to six weeks.

  If you have access to a mobile device you can download the HMRC app to access your employment and income history for the previous five years. Click here to download the HMRC app.

  Once you log in, press ‘pay as you earn’ and ‘other tax years or employment history’. At the bottom of the page press ‘your income tax and employment history’. This will take you to a new page where you can see your employment history. At the bottom of this page press ‘download income tax history PDF’, where you will have the option to save the PDF to your device. When you get to the employment section in our application form you will be able to upload the PDF document to evidence your employment.

  Please do not apply until you have your report.

• Household Income

  Your household income and expenditure needs to fall within our criteria. You can do a quick check here, to see if you will qualify. Our calculator is a guide and doesn’t guarantee a grant.

  You’ll need to be able to show your total available funds are less than £4,000 during the 90 days before you make a grant application.

  Open Banking:

  We use Open Banking through Consents.Online which is a safe and secure way to share your financial data online. (a third party organisation, part of Equifax)

  How does it work?

  • Simply give Consents.Online permission to access your account information. Once you have completed your application GroceryAid will email a secure link to you.
  • GroceryAid will then be provided with one-time    access to view your last 3 months bank statements to check you meet our financial criteria.

  Bank Statements:

  If you don’t use Consents.Online and choose to send bank statements then you will need to provide the last three months bank/building society statements for all accounts held in your name. If you are living as a couple, we will require all of your partner’s statements too.

  You can choose to upload your bank statements directly within the application form. These can be as a pdf, scans/photographs of paper statements, or complete screenshots.

  Gambling/Addiction

  GroceryAid are unable to award a grant direct to anyone considered to be in active addiction.

  This includes where we can identify transactions on your bank statements above 15% of household income to gambling or online entertainment. We consider you responsible for all transactions showing on statements in your name/partner’s name.

  We want to support you with this so please visit Gambling Support for details of our partnership with GamCare, or call our confidential GroceryAid 24/7 Helpline to discuss this with a trained counsellor.

• Evidence of Benefits

  If you are in receipt of benefits then depending on which benefit you receive you will need to evidence this in one of the following formats:

  A benefit statement showing the payment amount including your name and address.

  OR

  A bank statement with your address showing the benefit crediting.

Watch our short animation to understand what happens when you apply for a financial grant.

If you can’t apply online, or are applying on behalf of someone else, you will need to download an application form.

If you have any questions about applying for a grant or you need help with the forms, we’re here. Please contact us at applications@groceryaid.org.uk. Or call 01252 875 925 and select option 1.