GroceryAid School Essentials Grant 2024

[Strawbsss]

Hello,

I'm wondering if anyone applied for the GroceryAid School Essentials Grant this year for £150 per school age child towards school uniform?

If so, have you heard back yet?

I've been awarded the last 3 years and hate to admit, I do rely on it to help with school uniform costs so I'm worried we won't be awarded this year as they have changed their application process! Xx

Sainsburys. Manchester. Heard nothing. Applied when it first opened for 1 child.

B and M, Northern Ireland, first year applying for 3 kids so probably no hope 😥. Its the uncertainty of not knowing ladies. Like if we all knew we could just move on and put other things in place I suppose. I also emailed a few days ago even just to see even if northern ireland was included in the application process but just recieved the automated response you all have. I applied early on the 2nd day and recieved a reference number.

I agree.

I'm actually getting quite pissed off about it now.

Their blanket automated responses quoting the 9th August on every platform are quite condescending.

9th August is too late to find out. That gives me 3 weeks to source uniforms for 3 kids. Find shoes at a reason price that are comfortable (I have two ASD children so it can be quite a task).

Sorry girls, ranting and fed up x

Also co-op here, in west Lancashire. Suppose it's just a waiting game now. I agree it's very frustrating to just be left waiting this long, especially when lots of supermarkets have deals on uniforms at the moment. I'm slightly hopeful it may still happen by the end of the week.

I'm also co op. I'm wondering if they're allocating a certain % to each retailer. Perhaps co op will be tomorrow or Friday lol this thread is certainly helping my sanity. The whole way they've done this is increasing people's anxiety I'm sure. The whole checking each morning is soul destroying when u see u haven't got it x

I'm in West Yorkshire and work for Poundland. I've not heard anything and none of my colleagues have either

I'm eurospar northern Ireland and I got mine yesterday. Just fyi.

Thank you for this info, at least I know I have a chance still. Fingers crossed for everyone still waiting x

Zero, zilch, nada AGAIN!

Same ☹️

Same here 😔 starting to think maybe we're just the unlucky ones.

Nothing here either x

Nothing here too x

I have a theory that payments are submitted on a Friday and credit accounts on Tuesday.

All the payments I've seen so far have reached accounts on the Tuesday morning.

I suppose it makes sense from a financial point from GA and Charis Grants.

One payment run per week is more cost effective and it means all of that weeks payments are submitted at once and a recalculation of what funds are left over can be done.

It would explain why some people in the same workplace are receiving payments on the same day. If it really is random - their applications could have been selected on either the M, T, W, T or F that week and paid all together on the Friday x

Same and nothing pending for tomorrow either :(

Same here 😔

So I have just sent an email to grocery aid and charis. Just letting them know how we are all feeling. I doubt I'll get a reply, the charis one just sent the waspy 9th Aug reply lol but we'll see if grocery aid reply. I did ask about the Tuesday payment thing, hope u don't mind.

Yes, I’ve noticed it always seems to be a Tuesday too. Fingers crossed for next week.

Thank you for this @Debboid

It is important that they are transparent about the process. If they said payments were due to hit accounts on Tuesdays as they are submitted on a Friday, we wouldn't be frantically checking with false hope every other day of the week x

Exactly this. I'm not the best at writing a professional email but I hope they get the gist of what I was trying to get across lol. Fingers crossed for Tuesday 🤞 xx

I have also just emailed this over.

Hello,

I would just like to give you a little feedback on your School Essentials Grant 2024 application process.

We have been in receipt of the grant in previous years and this has been invaluable to us as a low income family with three disabled children.

Each year I have applied, I have either sought permission from my employer to apply on shift or set an alarm to alert me to the opening time to ensure I was able to apply during the application window.

I have always taken some comfort that once my application was in and supporting evidence submitted, that I would most likely be accepted. This gave me comfort and clarity.

This year, the new application process has caused us stress and discomfort.

We are checking emails, Facebook pages, Mumsnet and your website multiple times a day in hope of an update. Every time we have asked for information, we receive an email back stating the same information - ‘you will hear the outcome by the 9th August 2024’.

I feel it would be less detrimental to applicants for you to be transparent and clear about the volume of applications, the percentage of these which you can help, your selection process, if you prioritise applications based on the number of the children in the family and even the days you complete payment runs.

I have noticed the payments appear to be credited on a Tuesday, which leads me to believe you complete a payment run once weekly on a Friday. Providing this information to applicants will help ease the desire to check our accounts through the night etc.

The 9th August is very late to start buying school essentials. Many of the stores have already ran their ‘Back to School’ promotions and provided discount. For those of us with neurodivergent children, it can take time to find the correct items of clothing / footwear to suit our children’s needs. Finding out your application status three weeks prior to starting the new school year seems far too late.

If you could provide some clarity to the questions above, either via email or one of your platforms, it would be gratefully appreciated.

Many thanks

@Strawbsss @Debboid i really hope your emails receive a response that is of usefulness instead of the generic “9th August” I like how in depth both your questions have been and they deserve a human response rather than the usual robotic automated response. Feedback is essential for these companies and I think once the application is closed that everyone should leave their own feedback whether they received the payment or not, that this wasn’t such a great idea as it has caused so much anxiety and obsessive bank checking due to the fact we all needed this being low-income households. When previous years worked better as you knew you were receiving the sum if you applied in time. I understand the fairness of not everyone getting to apply but it worked fine before, and if you did miss out you knew straight away and could go ahead and put aside money for uniform and continue as normal.
I will be paid 6th August so will be buying uniform then if I don’t receive the uniform grant if I do I’ll buy as soon as I get it. This is my first year applying so it was always going to be hit and miss, I’ve already convinced myself I’m not successful. Hope you get a real response ladies!

Thank you! I know we can also apply for other grants off them if unsuccessful but again, it's a wait and lengthy process.

If I missed out in previous years as the application closed, I knew I could just go ahead and apply for another grant.

Aww thanks.

Not sure mine was written in the best way but hopefully got our points across.

Charis sent a generic 9th Aug automated reply. Grocery sent automated saying will reply within 3 days but I just want them to acknowledge that they've gone about things in the wrong way and their communication is just not acceptable but we'll see what they say. Xxx

I have had a reply from Grocery Aid.