Grants for single parent families

The Fashion & Textile Children’s Trust is a small charity with a long history of providing financial support to families in the UK fashion and textile industry.

Our grants can help single parents and carers who have worked for a clothing retailer, fashion or textile company or supermarket chain which sells clothing.

If you're finding it difficult to make ends meet due to rising energy bills and reductions to your Universal Credit, our grants could help. We can fund items for your children such as clothing, bedding and essential household items.

We encourage single parents and carers to apply for items your children will need for the year ahead, including:

• Essential clothing, e.g. seasonal clothing and school uniform and PE kit
• Baby clothing, equipment or bedding
• Children's bedroom furniture, e.g. beds, bedding, clothes storage furniture (chest of drawers)
• Essential Appliances, e.g. replacing a broken appliance such as fridge/freezer, washing machine, cooker/oven
• Specialist items for children with additional needs, e.g. sensory toys, adaptive clothing or SEN adapted computers

To apply you must have worked in the UK fashion and textile industry, for at least one year within the last nine years. Our criteria covers a broad range of businesses such as:

• which sell clothing, e.g. ASDA, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, etc.
• Clothing/footwear/bridalwear companies
• Textile companies
• / dry cleaning companies
• Fashion logistics companies
• Soft furnishing/carpet companies And many more.

It doesn't matter where you've worked in a fashion or textile business, from store, to head office and distribution. As long as the work was paid, for at least a year and your end date was within the last nine years, you could apply. When we can help your family: Our grants typically help single parent families who are already struggling financially (in arrears on your household bills or have debt)

You might also want to apply if your income has recently been affected in any of the following ways:

• Redundancy
• Long term furlough or reduced income
• Have been made to take unpaid leave to care for your children
• Have lost self employed income
• Have to self isolate and are not entitled to sick pay or your employer can't/won't pay it
• Struggling to cope with rising bills
• Struggling to cope with reduced Universal Credit