Whether it’s making ends meet day-to-day, dealing with debt or paying for an unexpected expense due to a serious illness or a death in the family, you can turn to the RAF Benevolent Fund when you need it the most.
Living costs
Sometimes just managing daily living expenses can be a challenge. If you’re living on a state pension or receiving Disability Living Allowance, there’s a good chance that we can help. And if you’re not, there are many other situations in which we’ll be able to make a difference.
In order to determine if and how much financial assistance we can offer you, we will need to make a thorough assessment of your financial situation.
Some of the more common types of financial help we provide are:
Annual maintenance grants
Paid in quarterly instalments to those living on a state pension, these grants, starting from £10 per week, help meet day-to-day living costs.
Sickness maintenance grants
These grants, paid quarterly, are for people who receive a long-term Disability Living Allowance.
Children’s needs
If you have a child with special needs, we can help with schooling fees, equipment and care costs. If you have a child in hospital, we can help cover the time you take off work to make hospital visits.
If your child is in good health and you are in a difficult financial situation, we may be able to help with such things as the cost of school uniforms.
Essential living costs
When an essential item such as a fridge or washing machine suddenly breaks down, you may not be able to handle the expense. That’s where we step in. We may be able to pay for the repair or replacement of appliances, replace furniture or contribute to the cost of moving house when it becomes a necessity.
Funeral costs
We believe every member of the RAF family should receive a respectful burial, so we are sometimes able to help pay basic funeral expenses, depending on circumstances. Such help will be confined to the costs of a basic funeral, and will not include the cost of flowers, newspaper announcements or extra cars.
Emergency needs
If you’ve experienced an illness or bereavement, you may find yourself facing unexpected short-term expenses when it’s least easy to cope. If that’s the case, we may be able to help you.
Knowing that each situation is unique, we like to keep the possibilities of how we respond open so that we can help in a way that works best for you.
Need our help? Apply for help online or call our free support line on 0800 169 2942.
