Buttle UK

About the charity

4 million children in the UK are living in poverty. This represents one of the highest levels of child poverty rates in the industrialized world.

Poverty wastes talent and opportunity and limits life chances. Children who grow up in low income families can lack the experiences and opportunities that their peers enjoy, for example; going on school trips, proper diets, space to play or do homework, having friends over to play or celebrate birthdays, holidays or winter coats. Children living in poverty, particularly for prolonged periods of time, are at risk of social exclusion and low aspirations.

For over 50 years, Buttle UK has been awarding grants to many thousands of vulnerable children, young people and families across the United Kingdom in the hope that we can improve their life chances and relieve them from some of the terrible conditions in which they live as a result of poverty.

We provide immediate and critical help to alleviate desperate circumstances for individuals, and through our education programmes, make lasting differences to the lives of children and young people across the UK.

In the last year, Buttle UK made over 10,000 grants amounting to over £3 million, to benefit children and young people who are seriously disadvantaged and/or in severe need.  This represents an 87% increase over the last five years, which has put enormous pressure on our funds and, while this is an achievement that has enabled us to improve the lives of very many children and families, it serves to highlight the enormity of the problem which we are trying to confront.

Buttle UK operate three main grant scheme programmes:

Child Support Grants:

Child support grants provide such items as cookers and other white goods, beds, bedding and essential items of furniture for children who are facing exceptional difficulties, which are impacting on their health or development. Grants are all made through agencies, and only when statutory sources have been explored.

The School Fees Grant Scheme:

We make school fee grants for children whose home life is precarious, and education in either the independent day or the state or independent boarding sector is the only solution to the child’s problems.

The Students and Trainees Grant Scheme:

We help by providing grants to students and trainees for further education courses who otherwise would enter adult life without adequate qualifications or training for work.