Financial support

You must currently working in education for two continuous years or more (in a primary or secondary school/college/university or a training provider offering courses to students who are 16+) in one of the following roles:

• Teacher
• Teaching Assistant
• Headteachers
• Deputy Head
• SEND staff
• Lecturers
• Supply Teachers (please see below)
• Supply Teaching Assistants (please see below)
• Learning Support
• Professors
• Academic Administrators
• Researchers

We will need confirmation of your employment; a P60 for 2024 (issued in April 2024) and the latest payslip/s. See Point 3 regarding essential documents.  

Supply Teachers/Supply Teaching Assistants; we understand at times you will be in between contracts at time of applying, if this is the case, please forward confirmation that you are actively registered with at least one agency.

We cannot consider your application without this information.

You cannot apply if:

• If you have access to funds/savings of more than £2,500, we are not able to consider an application.
• You have applied for a grant from us in the past two years.

We offer two types of grants. You can only apply for one grant programme at a time, and it needs to be clear to us that you are struggling and do not have the funds to cover the costs yourself.  You are unable to re-apply for another grant within two years, regardless of what grant type you receive. 

Food & travel to work grant: up to £250, a one-off payment, to go towards food or travel to work costs (public transport costs or petrol). 

General Living cost grant: up to £600, a one-off payment. This grant is for essential household items or towards utility costs/arrears.  

Essential household items we assist with are; fridge freezers, cookers, washing machines, beds and mattresses. 

Utility costs we assist with are; heating, gas, electric, water, phones/mobile phone & internet costs.  

Utility arrears; gas, electricity and water rates only – we can only consider assistance where the arrears are no more than £1,500.  Please see Point 12 for other organisations to approach if your arrears are above this amount.  

These grants do not need to re-paid, and the amounts awarded will be decided by the grants team. 

Food & travel to work grant:

You need to supply the following as part of your application: 

• P60 for 2024 (issued in April 2024) 
• latest payslip/s (at least 3 payslips if paid weekly) 
• your most recent bank statement on your main account (where your salary is credited, and essential household bills are paid from).  Please ensure these statements are in full, with the covering page showing your name and address. 

General living cost grant: 

• P60 for 2024 (issued in April 2024 
• latest payslip/s (at least 3 payslips if paid weekly)   
• your most recent two months bank statement on your main account (where your salary is credited, and essential household bills are paid from).  Please ensure these statements are in full, with the covering page showing your name and address 
• Universal Credit statement, if in receipt (most recent and in full)
• latest invoice from the appropriate utility supplier or confirmation of utility arrears (as applicable)  

Please see how to download my bank statement as a pdf under question 8. We prefer bank statements as pdfs however can use photos but these need to be very clear.

First you need to complete the eligibility check. You will then need to go to the application form for either the food and travel grant or general living cost grant. 

Please have your supporting documents ready to upload, as you cannot submit the application without them. 

If you are unable to submit a form online, we can forward a paper version, please email Grants.Caseworker@edsupport.org.uk, providing us with your name and address details. Please note, we will take longer to process your application if done via post. 

We aim to process applications as quickly as possible however we are a small team and are continuing to receive a high volume of applications so at times it may take us longer than we would like. 

Please ensure you have uploaded the supporting documents we require to process your application. 

Food & travel to work grant: this will be paid via a bank transfer and/or e-vouchers. 

General living cost grant: this will be paid via e-vouchers for essential household items (eg Argos, Currys, Ikea, etc).  Utility arrears; a bank transfer direct to the appropriate supplier.  Utility costs; either a bank transfer direct to your main account or direct to the appropriate supplier. 

When you create an application, you will be asked for your email address and a password, please use this information to log back into your application

There are a number of ways to do this. You can find instructions here.

You can also use Google Chrome to create PDF’s if your bank is not listed.

Food and travel to work grant: up to £250 

General living cost grant; up to £600 

The grants team will make the final decision on the amount awarded on both programmes. 

We cannot consider another application if you have been assisted during the past two years. 

Funeral costs:

We can offer a maximum grant of £500 towards funeral costs. This is offered towards a funeral for the applicant’s immediate family member, spouse/partner and child. 

The grant will be paid directly to the funeral directors and we require a copy of their invoice. 

Bankruptcy fee of £680:

Please forward the formal recommendations from the money advice service you have been working with, confirming they have recommended this course of action.  Please note we will not award the fee without this document and the fee will be paid directly to the Insolvency Services.

A list of organisation is available here.