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Individual Grants - April 2020 - National service suspended

Due to the ongoing coronavirus situation, the MS Society national grants programme has had to be paused. We will not be able to accept new applications, process applications already received or support local group applications. We understand this will be disappointing news, but a lot of difficult decisions are having to be made at the moment to try to protect the MS Society for the future. For both financial and practical reasons, it isn't possible to continue with with our national grants programme at the moment.

Groups are welcome to continue their own grant-giving activities if they are able to.

In common with many other charities, the organisation is expecting a substantial drop in income, so we need to act urgently to reduce expenditure and focus on services which have the greatest reach into the community at this time.

On a practical level, our offices are closed, and staff are now not available to undertake the work. The current situation also makes it more difficult for applicants to obtain the supporting information required to consider and process a grant request.

Those who have recently applied for a grant have been emailed to say their application is now on hold. The Grants Team will contact them again later in the year when our offices re-open.

For people awaiting a grant payment, all immediate payments will be made around 21 April, if we have received the banking or supplier information needed. All other payments (where this information has not been received) will be on hold and not paid until the offices re-open later in the year. These applicants have also been contacted by email.

For information about alternative grant providers, we suggest that people contact Turn2us on 0808 802 2000 or turn2us.org.uk.