How to check what grants and benefits worth thousands of pounds you may be entitled to

THE start of a new year can be daunting if you’re struggling financially, so it’s worth checking what help is available.

We explain how to find out what grants and benefits you might be entitled to – and the help on offer could be worth thousands of pounds.

1

Benefits could give you extra money on an on-going basis, unless your situation changes.

Grants, meanwhile, are usually one-off payments and often don’t need to be paid back.

The extra help could be a lifeline for Brits up and down the country battling against a cost of living crisis.

Hard-up families in particular have been hit the end to the Universal Credit uplift, soaring energy bills and rising inflation.

How to check what benefits you could be entitled to

The quickest way to see what benefits you may be able to claim is to use one of the three benefit calculators recommended by Gov.uk.

Each one is free to use. They include: 

For each of these, you’ll be asked information about your circumstances, such as your current employment and income.

You’ll also need to give information about yourself, including your age and who you live with.

Once you’ve used the tools you can use the contact information on Gov.uk to get the ball rolling and apply for what you’re owed.

Of course, the tools only provide an indicator of what benefits you can claim – and usually don’t include means tested benefits, so you may be entitled to even more.

Some of the benefits that people regularly don’t claim include Universal Credit, pensions credit and child credit.

At least seven million people in the UK are missing out on a whopping £15billion worth of benefits, according to the latest figures from Turn2us.

How to check what grants you could be entitled to

Debt charity Turn2Us told The Sun last year that there were 8,000 charities and organisations in the UK that offer cash to help struggling families.

Most of the time, you won’t need to pay a grant back – but do check this is the case before you apply.

If you’re successful, you’ll usually be allowed to spend the money on whatever you need to, but the money is usually provided to help pay bills or buy household essentials like food.

How much a grant is worth depends on the charity or organisation.

Turn2Us has a free grants search tool so you can find out what help is available to you.

You’ll need to search for what’s available specifically in your area by entering your postcode.

Next, you’ll be asked to give details about yourself, such as your name and gender.

You can also go into more depth by telling Turn2Us about your current health and employment situation.

Once you’ve found a grant you think you’re eligible for, you can put in an inquiry through Turn2Us.

You’ll need to be logged into your Turn2Us account to apply – if you don’t have one it’s free to sign up.

The amount of time it takes to get a response depends on the charity. For some, it says they’ll reply within five days while others can take 12 weeks.

Your local council could have schemes in place for you to use to get grants to help you pay your way.

For example, £500million has been given to councils to help hard-up Brits with food, clothes and energy bills under the Household Support Fund.

And a Sun investigation found that you can get up to £1,000 in help for bills, furniture are more if you apply to your local authority’s Welfare Assistance Scheme.

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk