If you receive a grant, you will not be able to apply again for twelve months. However, there are other organisations you might be eligible to apply to such as Turn2Us or Lightening Reach.

We do not provide funds for goods or services already purchased.

We do not currently offer emergency help.

Our policy is to award grants based on all the available information and in good faith. The budget we have available at the time of decision will also be a factor in some decisions. Consequently, our decision to award or not to award and the value is our decision alone and is not subject to complaint by the applicant or referrer. Consequently, there is no appeals basis in these circumstances.

Around 85% of those applicants who supply all the information requested are successful and receive a grant however we cannot help everyone who appies and unfortunately we refuse some applications.

If we ask for supplementary information, please attach it to your reply email. We accept screenshots, photographs, pdfs, or jpegs. Please do not send paperwork to our office as we cannot ensure it is secure and post is not picked up regularly.

We respond to applicants in date order. During busy periods this may mean a delay of 5 working days. But we will get back to you!

Your referrer must be an independent person who is professionally involved with you for example a Charity Advice or Support Worker, Social Worker, Housing Officer, Money Advice Worker, CAB Advisor, Health Visitor etc. They should write a statement or letter which should include: a description of your current circumstances, what you are applying for, how they are professionally involved with you and that they support your application.

No. We have limited funds, and we try to ensure that our funds go to those most in need. A referrer who can verify your situation means that you are more likely to receive a grant that meets your needs.

Households can only have one successful application per twelve months and no more than three successful applications in a five year period.

We normally supply a voucher via Select Rewards. You will be able to redeem the voucher online or in store with various retail outlets.

Our system uses the email address to identify individual applicants. Therefore you need a unique email address to apply. You will not be able to apply without one. In addition, we always correspond via email. We suggest that you set up a Hotmail or Gmail email address for the purposes of your application if you do not have one.  

Referrers who are making an application on behalf of a client without an email address also need to set up a valid Hotmail or Gmail account  for each specific applicant or client. (This does not mean we will use it to correspond as we can use the referrers email) . Failure to provide a valid unique email address will result in applications being overwritten and you will need to reapply.

No. We ask that you always apply via our secure application form on our website.  If you are having difficulties, please contact your referrer to ask for assistance or try the following:

• Use a different browser  
• Refresh your browser
• Ensure that the documents you are uploading are no more than 10Mb per file and are one of the following - pdf, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, txt, rtf, zip, jpg, jpeg,  png, gif  

If you need to contact a member of the grants team, please use our contact form on the website or email office@natben.org.uk supplying as much information as possible of the type of issue you are experiencing.

Provided you have supplied all the information we have requested, and your application is not for an exceptional item, we can usually decide within 15 working days. Applications for exceptional items may take up to six weeks.

We will contact you by email. We only phone applicants in exceptional circumstances.

We aim to provide an initial response within 15 working days but during busy periods this could take a little longer. If you have not heard from us, please check your junk mail or spam.