1. Eligibility
Support services Terms and Conditions
Read the Terms and Conditions for our support below.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
1.1. To find out about our support and eligibility criteria please visit our website.
2. Legal Helpline
2.1. Our legal helpline is available subject to a fair usage policy
2.2. This means that we are only able to provide a certain number of referrals to you in a 12-month period.
3. The Foothold App
3.1. The Foothold App provides free legal advice on a range of subjects and is available from the Apple Store the Google Play store or your usual app provider.
4. Career support
4.1. We can offer you career support, via our agreed partners, if you have been unemployed for at least 6 months.
4.2. If you ask to be referred for career support we expect you to engage with the service and complete the programme.
5. Mental health support
5.1. We provide a Wellbeing Hub which is available to everyone.
5.2. We also provide a maximum of 10 sessions of counselling support by providing a counselling grant for your preferred provider.
5.3. To access this support, we need confirmation that counselling is not available via the NHS within 3 months of your application to us.
5.4. When a grant is awarded, for a counselling grant, we will, wherever possible, pay the provider directly.
5.5. Where it is not possible to pay the provider, we expect a receipt to be forwarded to us with 14 working days of receiving the grant.
6. My Money Checker
6.1. We provide our ‘My Money Checker’ service to everyone, based in the UK, who contacts us for financial support.
6.2. This means we will make recommendations based on your circumstances.
6.3. As a charity we cannot provide grants that replace income to which you are entitled, for example, we may advise you to apply for benefits to which you are entitled but are not receiving. E.g., Housing Benefit.
7. Regular grants
7.1. For our support to continue you will be expected to engage with reviews, which are completed quarterly and annually.
7.2. We also expect you to notify us of any changes to your circumstances that happen between review periods.
7.3. Grants may reduce or increase depending on whether your circumstances change, during the term of the award period, and we may ask for a refund of any grants that are overpaid to you.
7.4. We will always notify you of any changes to your grant and when the changes will take effect.
8. One-off Grants
8.1. We will always consider alternative or statutory funding before we award a one-off grant.
8.2. Depending on your circumstances we may award a grant for the whole cost or part of the cost, we may also work with other charitable funds to share the cost.
8.3. When a grant is awarded, we will, wherever possible, pay suppliers direct.
8.4. When it is not possible to pay a supplier, we expect a receipt to be forwarded to us with 14 working days of receiving the grant.
8.5. Where for any reason the final purchase price is less than the grant awarded, we may ask for a refund of the difference.
8.6. One-off grants can only be used for the purpose they were awarded for.
8.7. We may ask for a refund of any grants that are overpaid to you or that are not used for their intended purpose.
9. Termination of support
9.1. Where information is provided that is found to be misleading or fraudulent, we will terminate our support with immediate effect and will not be able to provide any further support to you now or in the future.
9.2. We may ask for a refund of any overpaid grants
9.3. We will contact the appropriate authorities where fraud has found to have been committed or attempted.
9.4. If you are an IET member we may notify the IET in line with the IET Rules of Conduct.
10. Appeals
10.1. Nobody has an absolute right to a charitable support. For example, appeals against refusals of support are not the same as appealing statutory benefits decisions.
10.2. Appeals can be made if you feel the correct procedure has not been followed when reviewing and making a decision about your support application.
10.3. You may contact your caseworker within 28 days to appeal a decision. If you have an eligible reason to appeal the caseworker will send you the first stage appeals process.
10.4. Decisions regarding the outcome of the first stage appeal will be made within 10 working days of receipt.
10.5. If you do not accept the outcome of the first stage appeal, you may ask for your application to be forwarded to the second stage ‘Appeals panel’.
10.6. The Appeals panel will consider the application and make a decision within 28 working days. The decision of the Appeals panel is final.
11. Contact with our team
11.1. We understand that, at times, people that contact us can be distressed, angry or upset, however, we will not accept any abusive or disrespectful contact to our team.
11.2. If unacceptable behaviour continues we may have to terminate our contact with you.
11.3. This could adversely affect the support we can offer you.