The disability charity Sense has formed a partnership with a grant-maker for the first time in its 60-year history, in an effort to help beneficiaries cope with rising inflation.
Sense has created a £500,000 Cost of Living Support Fund and partnered with Turn2Us to distribute grants.
Richard Kramer, chief executive of Sense, told Third Sector the charity was acting because disabled people and their families could not afford to wait any longer for the government to step in.
Sense said today the fund would make 1,000 grants of £500. Half the grants have already been distributed.
Sense, which runs residential care and support programmes for people who are deaf and blind, says it is using its existing services to identify the families and individuals to receive a grant.
Help will also be extended to beneficiaries of services run by other disability charities, it said in a statement.
Kramer said grants were the best way “to put more resources into the hands of disabled people”.
He said Sense’s service users “were saying that they could not wait until the results of a leadership election [for the new prime minister] or until a new support package is introduced.
“We felt we had to do something now as people are in fuel poverty now.
“They are struggling, even before the bills increase in the autumn.”
Kramer described Turn2Us as “a natural partner”, given its focus on poverty and the fact that families will be referred for a grant rather than having to fill in forms to apply.
The collaboration, between two charities worth a combined £110m a year, is the latest move as the sector tries to address the worsening cost-of-living crisis.
Inflation hit 10 per cent earlier this month, the highest level in 40 years, and is expected to rise further as energy prices increase.
Some grant-makers have already said they will uplift existing charity grants to make sure they keep pace with inflation, while ministers have recommended funders consider using their reserves to protect the value of their grants.
The think tank Pro Bono Economics has described inflation as an “all-hands-on-deck crisis” for the voluntary sector.