Benefits and grants

If you are living with cancer, there are a range of benefits you may be entitled to which can help you with your everyday living costs. These include:

• Council Tax Support
• Housing Benefit
• Carer's Allowance
• Grants and loans.

The benefits system can be hard to understand. Our Welfare Rights Advisers can help you find out which benefits may be available to you. You can contact them by:

• Calling the Macmillan Support Line on 0808 808 00 00.
• Chatting online with a specialist using our webchat.
• Emailing the Macmillan Support Line.
• Asking a financial guide on our Online Community.

We can help if you:

• Would prefer to speak to us in another language
• Are calling from outside the UK
• Are deaf or hard of hearing.

Visit the Macmillan Support Line page for more information.

The Macmillan Benefits Calculator checks and shows the benefits and financial support you may be entitled to. The law in the UK and Northern Ireland recognises cancer as a disability, and you may be able to claim disability benefits.

The calculator is free to use and the information you give us is anonymous.

Find out more.

Macmillan Grants are small, usually one-off payments to help people who have a low level of income and savings. It is an extra bit of help, not a replacement for other types of support.

Find out more about our Macmillan Grants.

Our Energy advisers are here to help if you find it to difficulty paying your energy bills, including gas, electricity or water. They can advise you about schemes, grants and other budgeting tools which may help.

Find out more.

CLIC Sargent provides one-off grants to children and young people with cancer and their families. These can help with the extra costs that cancer can cause. Applications can be made through a CLIC Sargent social worker or by completing a form. For more information, call 0300 330 0803.

Turn2us helps people find specific charities that may be able to offer financial help. They have a grants search tool on their website.

Your local library may have books about organisations that provide grants. This might include A guide to grants for individuals in need, published by the Directory of Social Change.