Aberlour can help ease winter hardship for Falkirk families

Aberlour seeks to improve the lives of Scotland’s vulnerable children and young people as early as possible to stop damage being done before families reach crisis point.

The charity’s Urgent Assistance Fund can provide cash grants to help families with children – aged 21 and under – who are suffering extreme hardship, including those who have been impacted by Coronavirus.

The support usually comes in the form of cash grants to assist with a range of needs like food, prepay power cards, clothing, bedding, or other essentials.

While it is not possible for individuals to apply directly for these grants themselves, they can have their application endorsed and submitted by a sponsor like a social worker, health care professional, teacher, clergy or third sector organisation.

The grants are made at the discretion of Aberlour and families can only receive one grant per financial year.

To qualify for the grants a child must be 21 or under and suffering extreme hardship. A suitable sponsor must submit a fully completed and legible application on an official application form.

Applications for this assistance will only be available to families until 5pm on Friday, December 18 – after this time Aberlour will be unable to process any further applications until January 4 next year.

The Scottish Child Payment is also now open for applications – if you have a child who will be under six on February15 2021 and you get certain benefits or tax credits, you could be due £40 every four weeks per child once Scottish Child Payment starts.

The urgent need to promote the availability of the fund follows report published by Aberlour warning of a deepening poverty crisis threatening Scottish families.

There are some stark figures included in the document, which states six in 10 families who applied to the fund could not afford to feed their children, while one in two families could not afford to heat their homes.

Now thousands more families are at risk of falling into poverty due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Between March and August this year the charity gave out over £370,000 in emergency cash grants, with demand for the fund and the value of grants given out increasing substantially from last year.

A total of 3264 children were supported by the fund and applications for funding came from 31 of the 32 local authorities across Scotland.

Almost all of the applications received were for basic essentials from families who were unable to afford to feed their children, unable to afford to keep their homes warm and those who could not afford to clothe their children adequately.

Other applications were for bedding, baby supplies or to replace essential white goods in the home including fridges, washing machines and cookers.

The report also found that 71 per cent of the applications were made by single parents, despite single parent families only making up 25 per cent of the population in Scotland.

Aberlour found the number one reason for families requiring emergency cash was because of parental mental health issues – around 17 per cent of families – which points to the negative impact the pandemic is having on people’s mental health.

The charity launched its urgent Surviving Winter Appeal last month to raise funds that will go towards tackling poverty and inequality across Scotland.

Sally Ann Kelly, Aberlour chief executive, said: “When the lockdown started, we feared it would have a devastating impact on families living in or on the edge of

poverty. This has sadly proved to be the case.

“While our services have continued to support children and families throughout Scotland, and our supporters have donated magnificent sums to our Urgent

Assistance Fund, we need to continue to raise more money to sustain our vital work and reach more families at risk of falling through the cracks.”

Professor Morag Treanor, from Heriot-Watt University, wrote the Abelour report.

She said: “What is striking here is all of the applications made to the Urgent Assistance Fund were for basic essentials that are needed to survive. This demonstrates that there is a level of need across families in Scotland that is really quite fundamental and absolute, and on a higher scale than we have seen for some time.”

Support workers are seeing the impact of the current situation first hand.

One worker, who has referred many families to Aberlour, said: “It was particularly tough for the families referred to Aberlour who had been doing quite well and managing fine financially, and never had to worry about the benefit system.

“All of a sudden, they or their partner lost their job, and they couldn’t afford to pay the bills or put food on the table. That for them was a huge shock – when you have gone from managing, feeling really quite confident about your monthly budget, and then that just falls down overnight.

“It wasn’t just the financial impact, but the emotional impact too. One parent came to us and asked, how do I feed my children? I have no money left. That was the

biggest change with COVID-19 – families who have never struggled before having their worlds suddenly torn apart.”

Visit www.aberlour.org.uk for more information.