To apply for a family fund grant?

[SinkGirl]

I have two year old twins, one has very complex needs. Multiple diagnoses (metabolic affecting blood sugars, neurological, visual impairment that cannot be treated) and assessments ongoing - possibly fragile X syndrome, possibly ASD, etc.

Today I’ve had word that he’s been granted DLA - middle rate care. To be honest I’m surprised and have a bit of imposter syndrome I think - I know objectively that he is disabled and needs more care than his twin, but I’m still struggling with the term.

The garden of our house is really dangerous for him - there are multiple levels, a raised pond, lots of things that need fixing. We need to excavate and level it and have a proper safe area for him and his brother - because there are two I can’t take them outside on my own so we rarely ever use the garden.

Just been talking to DH about applying for a family fund grant for help towards fixing the garden as it’s a big job but I think we both feel uncomfortable with it. We both worry that it could take funds away from a child with much more severe difficulties.

With this help we could afford to do the work sooner. Without it, I’m not sure we could afford to do it in the next 12 months or maybe longer. It still feels wrong for some reason. We do own our house (with a big mortgage still).

What do people think?

Apply for it as the family fund will decide if they will award it anyway.

If your eligible go for it.
Although a lot of these grants tend to be for additional costs due to the disability and the garden you describe sounds equally unsafe for any toddler so I'm not sure that it'd meet the eligibility requirements

I agree with Arnold.

Apply for it. I know two families who have benefited from family fund, one got a hot tub (for son's mild hyper mobility) and a new family pc for dyslexic child. The other family got a grant to fence in their garden so that their children with autism could safely use the garden.

Apply. I felt the same when I first made an application for ds.
But family fund make the decisions about how money is distributed so an application is just that.

What Arnold said. If you're entitled to it and it would help, there's no reason you should feel uncomfortable about it. That's what the system is there for - to support those that need it.

You have nothing to lose by applying. Info about their garden grants here: www.familyfund.org.uk/garden-improvements. However, their grants are not big (think hundreds rather than thousands).

Yanbu. Apply and hopefully you will get it. We don't qualify anymore but we have had 2 life-changing grants from the family fund before.

It's to benefit the child so why wouldn't you? It's a lot to pay out for and if your child was able bodied and 'typical' these are things you wouldn't be having to think about

Family fund is great. Apply

But their grants tend to ‘only’ be for £500 ish so may not go far towards the garden so maybe worth thinking of there is anything else that would help

Your children have complex needs. These grants are available for a reason, the reason is, that families where disability is present spend more for their children to access the world in a way the non- disabled people can do without extra funds. Disability is not a lifestyle choice. Good luck with your application.

you wont get enough to do up a garden

You can apply for sure
We applied for daughter
Intestinal failure, complex congenital heart disease, immune system issues, hyper mobility, global development delay
Central line attached to IVs for 16 hours and feeding tube amongst other things
And we were declined so not sure what their requirements are :(

Don't feel guilty about applying! I have a disabled child, take anything you can that will make life easier for your child. We had our garden fenced by the local authority via a grant applied for via occupational therapy. You might be able to access a similar scheme to make your garden safe.

Thanks everyone - really appreciate the supportive words. To clarify, I’m definitely not expecting it to cover everything!

His twin can use the garden quite safely with a bit of prompting - the problem is that there are currently different levels (raised decking with a bloody raised pond in the middle of it, a lawn a bit lower than that and then a lower path to the side) and he can’t see the edges or step down so it’s just not usable for him. It’s not a huge garden and I’m not sure yet what it will cost to make safe - I’d be happy with whatever is cheapest just to make it usable, even if that’s just properly fencing and gating round the lawn as a temporary measure.

You must be on Benefits or Working Tax Credit to apply. This is a list of all the criteria of which you must meet

The maxium you can get is 550 and thats usally only on your first application. The wait time is about 12 weeks currently. They are a fantastic charity and my son has benefited from them a couple of times. I would suggest that you apply for something else alongside (you have priority optiins) that way if they decline the garden they may fund something else without haveing to wait again. You can obly apply once a year so make sure you apply for the right thing. Good luck x

Not quite true Powerless; you can still apply if not in receipt of the benefits listed but you will/may have to provide details of family income.

@Mamabearx4

The maxium you can get is 550 and thats usally only on your first application.

Very untrue. Our first award value was £2000 and another family I know well received similar so unsure why you’d post that.
OP apply for whatever you feel would help and see what they award. Good luck.

I was mistaken then, as this was what i was told on applying. But good that a higher amount is achieveable in this instance.

Not sure if you checked out WellChild. They've done up my garden several years ago and it's been great so far. They do bedroom or a garden makeover for those with complex needs so it would be worth contacting them.

www.wellchild.org.uk/supporting-you/garden-bedroom-makeovers/

We got it for for 2 years running (we were low income at that time) and it was great. The first time we got a tumble drier, Argos vouchers and money for clothing. The second year we chose a holiday voucher. This was about 10 years ago though, I've heard that they cannot afford to be so generous now due to cuts. You do need one of their medical staff to come out to the house to do an assessment, which put a few people off.

when was that though Fallingout ?? I heard they use to do driving lessons but dont anymore so its
possible the amounts changed.

No advice but I didn't even know this existed, how amazing! Good luck with it!

Thanks so much everyone.

According to that list you need to be in receipt of one of the list of benefits including working tax credits and / or child tax credits - we get CTC so that’s not an issue.