We provide financial grants to B2B field salespeople.

Business-to-business (B2B) sales means selling products or services to businesses or other organisations, rather than primarily selling to individual consumers.

For our current hardship fund, we are looking for people whose main career has been in B2B sales. Typically, this means spending a significant part of your role developing new business, finding and converting opportunities, managing commercial relationships and working towards sales targets or quotas.

You may have been responsible for winning new customers, growing existing accounts, or both.

Job titles vary widely across sales, so we do not decide eligibility based on your job title alone. We will look at what you actually did in your roles and may ask you to provide further information about your employment history.

Our grants are intended for people experiencing genuine financial hardship who have limited resources available to manage their situation.

We look at your household income, essential living costs, savings, assets, debts and other financial commitments. We also consider whether you have access to other resources that could reasonably be used to meet your needs.

Most of the people we help are living on, or close to, minimum living standards and have little financial resilience when something goes wrong.

Every household is different, so we consider each application individually.

Financial hardship rarely affects one person’s finances in isolation. If you live with a partner or another adult with whom you share your finances or household responsibilities, we will usually need to understand their financial circumstances as well as yours.

This includes household income, savings, assets, debts and regular expenditure. We do this so that we can understand the resources available to the household as a whole and make fair and consistent decisions about how our charitable funds are used.

We understand that couples and other adults living together do not always combine their finances. Separate bank accounts do not necessarily mean that finances are assessed separately, particularly where people share a home, living costs or financial responsibilities.

We need enough information to understand your financial circumstances and make a fair decision about your application.You will usually be asked to provide information about your income, benefits, savings, property, debts, regular expenditure and other financial commitments.

We will also ask you to securely connect all relevant bank accounts through the application platform. This includes personal and joint current accounts, savings accounts, digital bank accounts and, where relevant, business accounts.

Where we are assessing the circumstances of a couple or household, we may also need financial information and access to relevant bank accounts belonging to other members of the household. This can include households where several generations of a family live together. For example, we may need information about adult children, parents or other relatives living in the household where they contribute to household costs, share financial responsibilities, or have resources that are relevant to understanding the household’s overall financial circumstances.

We will not automatically treat every adult living at the same address as financially responsible for an applicant. We will consider how the household actually operates, including who shares costs, contributes financially and has access to household resources.

Depending on your circumstances, we may ask for additional evidence such as proof of employment history, information from HMRC, benefit statements, tenancy agreements, mortgage information or details of debts and formal debt arrangements.

If we need further information, we will explain what we need and why.

We understand that people experiencing financial hardship still have choices to make about how they spend their money, and we do not expect applicants to have perfect finances. However, we have a responsibility to make sure that our limited charitable funds are used where they can provide effective help.

As part of our assessment, we look at regular household spending, financial commitments and discretionary expenditure. This may include spending on non-essential goods and services, subscriptions, leisure activities and other significant or recurring expenditure.

We may ask questions where spending appears difficult to reconcile with the level of financial hardship described in an application.

We do not make decisions based on individual purchases in isolation. We look at the overall circumstances of the household, patterns of income and expenditure, and whether a grant is likely to provide meaningful and sustainable short-term help.

We recognise that gambling, problematic online gaming, alcohol and drug use can have a serious impact on individuals and families. We will not normally provide a financial grant where there is current behaviour or active addiction that is causing significant financial harm and means that a grant is unlikely to provide effective or sustainable help.

This does not mean that someone with a history of addiction can never apply. We will consider your current circumstances, including whether the behaviour has stopped or is being managed, whether you are receiving appropriate treatment or support, and whether providing financial assistance would be safe and effective. We may ask for further information to help us understand your circumstances.

Being self-employed does not prevent you from applying.

We understand that many people working in sales run their own businesses, work as consultants or operate through limited companies. You will still need to meet the eligibility criteria for the fund you are applying to. For our current hardship fund, this means demonstrating the required career history in B2B sales.

We will need to understand both your personal and business finances. This may include asking for tax information, accounts or other evidence of business income and expenditure, and access to relevant personal and business bank accounts.

You do not need to have a permanent address to apply for help. We understand that homelessness can take many forms. You may be sleeping rough, living in temporary accommodation, staying with friends or family, or facing the loss of your home.

We will consider your current circumstances and the resources available to you.

Where you are staying with other people temporarily, this does not necessarily mean that we will treat their income, savings or property as part of your household finances.

You will still need to meet the eligibility criteria for the fund you are applying to and provide enough information for us to understand your circumstances and assess your application fairly.

Applications are made online through our application partner, Lightning Reach. You will be asked to create a profile and provide information about your employment history, household and financial circumstances.

When asked about the industries you have worked in, select Sales / Wholesale.

Once you have completed your profile, you should receive a match to The Salespeople’s Charity if the information you have provided indicates that you may be eligible for our current fund.

You can then continue to our application, answer some additional questions and provide the information needed for us to assess your circumstances.

Completing an application or receiving a match does not guarantee that a grant will be awarded.

We aim to make initial contact with you within five working days of receiving your application. We will review the information you have provided to establish whether you appear to meet the fund’s eligibility criteria and whether we have enough information to carry out a full assessment.

We may contact you to ask questions or request further evidence. This is a normal part of our assessment process and does not mean that your application has been unsuccessful.

More complex applications may take longer to assess, particularly where we need additional information about employment history, household circumstances or finances.

Once we have completed our assessment, we will let you know the outcome of your application.

Meeting our eligibility criteria does not guarantee that a grant will be awarded. All grants are discretionary and decisions are made taking account of individual circumstances and the charitable funds available.

We take the security and privacy of your personal and financial information seriously. Applications are made through our trusted application partner, Lightning Reach, which provides a secure online platform for sharing the information and evidence needed to assess your application.

Where you connect a bank account, the connection is read-only. Neither The Salespeople’s Charity nor Lightning Reach can move money, make payments or access your bank account login details.

Bank account connections are provided using secure technology from Plaid, which is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

The financial information you provide is used to assess your application and is handled in accordance with our privacy policy and applicable data protection law.

Yes. Many of our applicants receive help from someone they trust when completing their application.

This could be a family member, friend, colleague or someone supporting you professionally, such as a caseworker, social worker, welfare adviser, support worker or charity representative.

The person helping you must have your permission to act on your behalf and be able to access the information needed to complete your application accurately. You remain responsible for ensuring that the information provided is complete and correct.

If you are working with a professional support worker or another organisation, they are welcome to contact us if they have questions about the application process or the information we need.

Every application is different, so there isn’t a fixed list of things we will or won’t fund. We don’t simply fund items – we fund outcomes.

Our aim is to use our charitable funds where they will make the greatest difference. Sometimes that means replacing an essential household item. Sometimes it means helping someone stay in their home, return to work, recover from illness or regain financial stability.

Every decision is based on what is most likely to provide meaningful, practical and lasting support.

Examples of the types of support we may be able to provide include:

• Essential living costs
• Helping people through periods of immediate financial hardship where essential day-to-day living costs cannot reasonably be met from other resources.
• Housing
• Helping people remain in safe and secure accommodation. This may include rent arrears, deposits, essential moving costs or other housing-related expenses.
• Utilities
• Helping where gas, electricity or water arrears place a household at risk or where maintaining essential services is critical.
• Essential household items
• Replacing or repairing essential household items where this will restore safe and independent day-to-day living.

Examples might include:

• Beds and bedding
• Cookers
• Fridges and freezers
• Washing machines
• Essential furniture
• Other household items that are necessary for everyday living
• Health and wellbeing
• Equipment, services or practical support that improves independence, recovery, safety or quality of life.
• Employment and returning to work
• Practical support that enables someone to remain in employment or return to work following illness, injury or financial hardship.
• Essential travel
• Travel costs where these are necessary for employment, medical treatment or other exceptional circumstances.
• Financial recovery
• One-off support that helps someone regain financial stability where a grant is likely to make a meaningful difference.
• For example, where bankruptcy has been independently recommended by a qualified debt adviser or insolvency professional, we may consider funding the bankruptcy application fee as part of a grant.
• Other exceptional circumstances

We recognise that financial hardship affects everyone differently.
If your circumstances are not listed above, we still encourage you to contact us. We will always consider whether we may be able to help.

Please remember
The examples above are intended as a guide rather than a definitive list.

Every application is assessed individually, taking account of the applicant’s circumstances, the purpose of the grant and whether it is likely to provide meaningful, practical and lasting support.

Because every application is assessed individually, we do not have a definitive list of exclusions. However, we would not normally provide grants for

• Ongoing living costs where long-term financial support is needed rather than a one-off grant.
• Business start-up costs, business investment or business debts.
• Paying off unsecured debts where this would not resolve the underlying financial difficulties.
• School fees, college or university tuition fees, or educational grants.
• Holidays, leisure activities or other discretionary spending.
• Luxury or non-essential purchases.
• Fines, penalties or court costs (unless there are exceptional circumstances).
• Costs that have already been paid.
• Home improvements or property enhancements that are not essential for health, safety or accessibility.
• Repeat grants to the same individual.
• Requests where active addiction means that a financial grant is unlikely to provide meaningful or sustainable support.

Please note
Our grants are intended to provide practical, one-off support that helps people through a period of financial hardship.

Every application is considered on its own merits. In exceptional circumstances, Trustees may decide to support requests that fall outside these examples where doing so is consistent with our charitable objectives and is likely to make a meaningful difference.

Being bankrupt, having an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA), or using another formal debt solution does not automatically prevent you from applying.

We will consider your overall financial circumstances, the purpose of the grant and whether financial support is likely to provide meaningful and sustainable help.

While we cannot provide debt advice or recommend one debt solution over another, we recognise that, in some cases, bankruptcy may be the most appropriate route to achieving long-term financial stability.

Where an appropriately qualified debt adviser or insolvency professional has recommended bankruptcy, and we are satisfied that it represents the best outcome for your circumstances, we may consider funding the bankruptcy application fee as part of a grant.

We may ask for further information about any debt arrangements or professional advice you have received as part of our assessment.

There is no standard grant amount.

Every application is assessed individually, and any award will depend on your circumstances, the level of financial hardship you are experiencing, and how we believe a grant can provide the greatest practical benefit.

Some grants are relatively modest, helping to resolve a specific issue or meet an immediate need. Others may be larger where the circumstances justify additional support.

Our grants are intended to provide meaningful, one-off assistance that helps people overcome a period of hardship and move towards greater financial stability, rather than providing ongoing financial support.

Every decision is made on its own merits, taking account of the information provided and the resources available to the charity.

If your application is successful, we will discuss with you the most appropriate way for any grant to be paid. Most grants are paid by bank transfer. Depending on your circumstances and the purpose of the grant, we may

• pay the grant directly into your bank account
• pay a supplier or service provider on your behalf
• pay an organisation or creditor directly where this is the most effective way to provide support

Every award is considered individually, and the payment method will reflect the purpose of the grant and your particular circumstances.

We want to make sure that our charitable funds reach the people who need them most. As part of our assessment, we may verify the information you provide using evidence from a range of sources.

This may include reviewing documents you provide, checking information through our secure application platform, and carrying out reasonable enquiries using publicly available information.

We may review information available through search engines, professional profiles, company websites, public records and publicly accessible social media where this helps us verify the information provided in your application.

We do not make decisions based on a single source of information. If we identify information that appears to be inconsistent with your application, we will normally give you the opportunity to explain it before making a decision.

We take the responsible stewardship of charitable funds seriously. If we believe that information has been deliberately withheld, falsified or misrepresented in an attempt to obtain a grant, your application will be declined. Where appropriate, we may also seek to recover any grant awarded, share information with relevant organisations, and report suspected fraud to the appropriate authorities.

We are committed to treating every applicant with fairness, dignity and respect. If you are unhappy with any aspect of the way your application has been handled, we encourage you to let us know. We will always listen to your concerns and aim to resolve them as quickly as possible.

Complaints about our service or the application process should be made in writing to [contact details]. We will acknowledge your complaint and investigate it in line with our Complaints Policy.

Our grants are discretionary and every application is considered on its individual merits. If you believe we have made a factual error, misunderstood information you provided, or if there has been a procedural issue with your application, you may ask us to review the decision.

However, we cannot reconsider an application simply because you disagree with the outcome or would like Trustees to reach a different decision based on the same information.

If your circumstances change significantly after a decision has been made, you are welcome to contact us to discuss whether a new application or review may be appropriate.