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Financial Support

Easing the burdens you carry

When you’re trying to heal from abuse, financial stress can feel crushing. Maybe you’ve left an abusive situation and you’re struggling to pay rent.

Perhaps you can’t afford essential items for your children. You might be dealing with debt, unable to pay utility bills, or facing an emergency expense you simply can’t cover.

Financial strain can completely derail your recovery. That’s why we offer direct financial assistance and money management support to help ease the burden during difficult times.

What We Offer

Financial Advocacy & Money Management Support

We know that dealing with money after abuse can feel overwhelming. Maybe you’re not sure how to manage a budget after years of financial control, or you’re struggling to understand bills and statements. We won’t judge your financial decisions or make you feel ashamed.

Our advocates can provide compassionate support with money management, helping you understand your income and expenses, work out a realistic budget, deal with creditors, and build confidence in managing your money.

Safe Haven Hardship Grants

Safe Haven Zakat Fund 

For Muslim clients who are zakat eligible. A fund from donations by the Muslim community, distributed according to Islamic principles. This fund is assessed based on your individual financial situation, including income, expenditure, and any debts. 100% of zakat donations go directly to eligible recipients.

Safe Haven General Hardship Fund

 For all clients, regardless of faith. For clients who are not eligible for zakat or are not Muslim, we have other grant programmes available to support people experiencing financial hardship.

What the Grants Can Help With

Both grant programmes can provide support for essential needs when you’re in financial hardship:

  • Emergency housing costs (rent arrears, deposits)

  • Essential household items (beds, white goods, furniture)

  • Food and basic necessities

  • Utility bills (gas, electric, water)

  • Travel costs for important appointments

  • School uniforms or supplies for children

  • Certain types of debt (assessed individually)

  • Other essential expenses

Important : These grants are emergency support, accessed when other avenues have been tried. We encourage applicants to explore options like payment plans with utility companies, council tax benefits, Universal Credit, and housing benefit before applying.

How It Works

Getting the support you deserve is simple. We’ve designed a caring process to help you start your healing journey.

Step 1

Get in touch

Discuss your situation with our team so we can understand your needs and guide you through the next steps.

Step 2

Complete the application form

Fill out the application form with your details. Our Grants Manager can assist you if needed.

Step 3

Provide required documents

Submit supporting documents such as bank statements or other information to verify your circumstances.

Step 4

Application review

We carefully assess your application to determine eligibility for financial support.

Step 5

Receive the outcome

We’ll notify you of the decision. If approved, support will be arranged as soon as possible.

Frequently Asked Questions

General - Applies to Both Grants

What can I use the grant for?

The grant is for basic needs, emergency support when you've tried other avenues first. This might include rent, utilities, food, essential household items, or certain debts (assessed individually).

We expect you to have explored other options first, like payment plans with utility companies, reviewing and adjusting your spending where possible, council tax benefits (if applicable), Universal Credit, housing benefit, and other available government support.

We encourage applicants to seek support from friends or family with the application. Our team is small and requests for help may delay your application. In exceptional circumstances we've supported clients, but we always encourage people to try first. Your advocate can also help you with this.

Unfortunately no. As grants are specific to each individual, we can't make payments to another person, even with your permission. We ask all applicants to open a bank account before applying.

We do accept returning clients. However, we encourage you to try other avenues before applying again. Demand for the service is huge and we don't want to refuse new applicants if funds are limited. Please allow 12 months since your last grant before reapplying.

Yes. Eligibility depends on your situation at the time of applying. People's circumstances change, so we complete full checks for every application, even for returning clients

If you provide all requested documents promptly, it can take up to three weeks from receiving everything. Please read emails carefully and provide all listed documents in a timely manner, missing documents will delay your application

Absolutely not. All your records are held internally with access only available to the small number of staff working directly on your case. Your safety is paramount at Nour and we would never do anything to risk it.

Apart from the small team handling your case, we don't share your documents or personal information with anyone. Any details that go to funders are anonymised.

We have a trauma-responsive approach. All staff at Nour are fully trained, experienced, and passionate about this work. You'll be treated with respect, in a non-judgemental and compassionate manner.

About the Zakat Fund

What is zakat?

Zakat is an important pillar of Islam, an act of worship made compulsory for those with financial means. It's distributed only to those who meet specific eligibility criteria. Unlike other hardship grants, zakat assessments look at your individual financial situation including income, expenditure, circumstances, and any debts.

We look at each case individually. We assess your monthly income, expenses, savings, assets, and debts. If you're unsure, you can email our support team with details about your financial situation and we can give you a quick initial assessment before you do the full application.

Owning a house doesn't automatically disqualify you for zakat. We look at your complete financial picture individually. Factors like your monthly income, expenses, and whether you have a mortgage all help us make the decision.

We understand this might feel uncomfortable. We use bank statements to help assess your case, to check how you're managing your spending and whether the information matches your application. This is important to ensure that clients are honest about their income and expenses. These checks safeguard both your interests and the interests of the zakat giver.

As zakat comes from specific taxation incumbent on Muslims and is received from the Muslim community as zakat donations, it can only be distributed to Muslim beneficiaries according to Islamic law. It's an act of worship, so both paying and receiving zakat is only available to Muslims. However, we have other grants available to support anyone experiencing financial hardship, regardless of faith or no faith.

As zakat is an act of worship, you'll be held accountable if you're not honest on the application and receive zakat when you're not actually eligible. This is forbidden in Islam. So it's extremely important that you're open and honest about your financial situation, including any savings or other income.

When zakat is collected, we keep a separate database for all zakat income and ensure it's distributed within that year. We have a strict procedure for assessing each case. Our zakat policy was designed by an advisory panel (Mufti Amjad) and is overseen by Mufti Maruf Ahmed. 100% of zakat goes directly to recipients, we never use zakat money to pay for administration.

Yes. We have other grant programmes available for clients who aren't eligible for zakat. This includes both Muslim and non-Muslim clients. If we're unable to help or if the grant isn't enough, we'll signpost you to other sources of help and in exceptional circumstances can apply to some grants on your behalf.

Requirements may vary depending on the specific grant programme. We'll let you know what's needed when you apply. Our approach is always trauma-informed and we only ask for what's necessary.