Low income is not a necessarily a dead end. According to your particular situation, you can get financial help.

Sure Start Maternity Grants

The costs of a new baby can be overwhelming for some families. The Sure Start Maternity Grant helps them by providing a payment of £500 which doesn’t have to be returned. You or your partner are entitled to receive the grant if any of the following are received: Income Support, Pension Credit, income based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Working Tax Credit where a disabled person is included in the assessment, or Child Tax Credit at a rate higher than the family element. You can claim the grant in the period that starts 11 weeks before the baby is expected and lasts until three months after the baby is born. In the case of an adoption, you must claim within the three months since the adoption has taken place. Another condition is that the baby must be under 12 months old. The same time span of three months applies in the case of a surrogate birth. Also a parental order is needed.

Funeral Payment (the Social Fund)

The funeral payment takes away the financial burden when arranging a funeral. For you or your partner to be granted such a payment it is required that one of you must be receiving Income Support, Pension Credit, income based Jobseeker's Allowance, Working Tax Credit where a disabled person is included in the assessment, or Child Tax Credit at a higher rate than the family element. The financial help is not entirely free and it is recoverable from the estate of the deceased person.

Community Care Grants

The grant doesn’t require that you ever return it. It is free. A Community Care Grant is awarded if you are getting Pension Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, or payment related to any of these benefits, or you are susceptible of receiving any of these benefits in the following six months and you are moving out of institutional or residential accommodation. Another situation is when you have to stay in your home and not in a care centre. The grant applies also to the situation when families need to care for a prisoner or a young offender released on temporary license, or when necessary travels involve costs that are too high to bear.