Bath is a beautiful city but its wealthy veneer masks a city and surrounding area with its own share of poverty and deprivation. Although Bath is a highly popular tourist destination and a world heritage site, the region is no less immune to illness, unemployment, poverty and debt and the high cost of property here exacerbates the challenge. People in financial crisis need help, wherever they live.
That’s why we operate a Crisis Programme, providing financial support to individuals and families in Bath and North East Somerset who are really struggling to make ends meet. It aims to meet the most essential needs, such as beds, white goods, furniture, counselling, debt support and basic employment skills and training.
Individuals can’t apply to St John’s directly. Applications are made through a referrer such as a charity or housing association – a full list can be found below. Once a referrer has been identified, the process will begin. Once we’ve received your application through the referrer, we aim to respond within five working days. If successful, we’ll handle the rest, from paying relevant suppliers to organising delivery of goods.
All applications to the Crisis Programme must be made through a referral organisation. A list of our referer’s can be seen below:
- Action for Children
- Age UK
- AWP – Recovery Team
- AWP Specialist Drug and Alcohol Service BaNES
- B&NES Children’s Social Care
- B&NES Children Centres
- B&NES Connecting Families
- B&NES Council
- B&NES Family Intervention Team
- Bath Area Play Project
- Bath Mind
- BathNES Fit
- Bath Rugby Foundation
- Beloved
- Bright Start Children’s Centre
- Bristol Children’s Hospital
- Cameley CEVC Primary School
- CAMHS
- Carers’ Centre
- Carers Support Centre
- Citizens Advice
- Curo
- Developing Health & Independence
- DHI My Script
- Focus Counselling
- Fosseway School
- Freeways
- Future Bright BANES
- Genesis Furniture Project
- Genesis Trust Bath
- Home Group
- Julian House
- Keynsham Children’s Centre
- Life Charity
- LiveWest
- Mercy in Action
- National Probation Service
- Options for Living
- Parkside Children’s Centre
- PEOPLE
- Radstock Children’s Centre
- Reach
- Reason
- Second Step
- Solon South West Housing Association
- Southside Family Project
- Sovereign Housing Association
- St Mungo’s
- Stroud Beresford Group
- Swallow
- Three Ways School
- Virgin Care
- VOICES
- WE Care & Repair
- Welfare Support
- Wiltshire Citizens Advice
- YMCA Bath Group
- Youth Connect
- Youth Offending Service
To be eligible for financial support from the Crisis Programme, the individual or family must be living within the Bath and North East Somerset area.
In addition, monthly disposable income (i.e. the income remaining every month after all essential spending) must not exceed £250 for a household with no dependent children, £275 for a household with up to two dependent children or £300 for a household with three or more dependent children. At our discretion, this can be higher if the family is larger or has some other extenuating circumstance.
Items that the Crisis Programme may fund include:
- Rent arrears
- Utility bill arrears
- Council tax arrears
- White goods
- Furniture
- Household items
- Removal costs
- Household repairs and decoration.
- Bankruptcy fees
- Debt relief order fees
- Courses and qualifications leading to employment.
- Counselling and mentoring fees.
- Funeral expenses
St John’s will not fund the following:
- Loans
- Fines (including Magistrate Court fines)
- Deposits or rent in advance
- Retrospective funding (any item or costs that has been spent prior to approval by the team)
- Gap Year projects
- Gifts
- Holidays (although the team may consider funding trips for children that enrich learning opportunities)
- Vet bills and any costs relating to pets
- Legal aid
- Start-up costs for businesses
- Flooring (except in certain circumstances, such as mobility needs)
- Credit cards and store cards
If you are a referrer completing an application for an individual or family, please visit our funding portal and either log in or create an account with us to get started.
You will need to answer questions about the beneficiary’s situation to understand how we can help, including providing documents, such as bank or benefits statements. This is so we can make sure we’re helping people who meet our criteria (see above). If we’ve provided funding in the last two years, we’ll take this into account when assessing the application.
Once we’ve received an application, our aim is to respond within five working days, but we’re able to respond within hours if the need is urgent.
If the application is successful, we’ll send you an email with details about what we’re providing. If it’s household essentials, we may ask for the person receiving the items to speak to suppliers directly to arrange deliveries.
Please note that a retail voucher will be issued for any items not provided by our usual suppliers (e.g., Argos). This will be emailed to the referrer, who will be expected to return digital copies of the receipts to St John’s within fourteen days as evidence that the agreed items have been purchased.
If you think someone you’re supporting may be eligible for a grant from St John’s, we welcome an application. If you need more information about the Crisis Programme or if you’d like to talk the situation through before you apply, feel free to get in touch by calling 01225 486400 or emailing grants@stjohnsbath.org.uk
