Apply for help
Please email or call us on 020 7486 4994 to request a form and discuss whether you may be eligible for our help. All requests are considered in confidence. Please complete and download the relevant forms using the links below;
Guidance and Application Form (word) or
Guidance and Application Form (PDF) or
Dental Student Guidance and Application Form (word) or
Dental Student Guidance and Application Form (PDF)
When we receive your completed form with supporting documentation, [assuming this confirms you are eligible for help], we will:
- Check if we need any further information from you
- Prepare a report on your application
- Consider your application at one of our Trustee meetings
- You may also be visited by our General Manager or a Trustee
If you know of someone who might benefit from our assistance, please pass on our details.
Eligibility
- You must have little in the way of income or savings and be unable to support yourself financially due to unexpected hardship, unemployment, illness, disability or because you are over state retirement age.
- You must have at some time been registered with the General Dental Council as a dentist, or a student at a UK dental school, or be a dependent of a dentist (i.e. a partner, spouse, widow or child).
- You must be living in the UK.
The BDA Benevolent Fund is an independent charity – you do not need to be a member of the British Dental Association to apply.
The types of financial assistance we offer can vary from individual to individual but we have recently given grants for:
- day-to-day living costs (utility bills, food, and housekeeping etc)
- those returning to work such as help with retraining costs and professional fees (ARF, indemnity, CPD, etc)
Have a look at some of our real-life testimonials to see how we have supported others.
Who we help and how we can help
We provide a range of financial support for dental students, dentists, and their dependents. Each case is dealt with on an individual basis and the assistance we provide is tailored to each person’s needs.
“Once your payments ceased [upon my return to work] I never got back to you to express my gratitude to your organisation for its support for the months it gave me a grant. There aren’t really adequate words to describe how much difference your support meant to me.
You were a great support to me and I would like to thank you for your help and professionalism throughout the whole affair. Having a kind, sympathetic and understanding ear made a big difference.”
What we are unable to help with
Unfortunately, our remit doesn’t extend to providing financial support for other dental registrants (unless they are a dependent of a dentist). Other charities can help and you may find the grant search on Turn2us useful.
We cannot provide financial support if you have significant savings, if your income significantly exceeds your expenditure or if you are requesting help towards the cost of certain items, including:
- Private healthcare and medical insurance
- Private or higher education fees or expenditure
- Legal/ court fees (with the exception of bankruptcy or debt relief orders)
- Payments to HMRC
- Repaying loans from family and friends
- Business costs or debts
All correspondence will be kept confidential and only be seen by those involved with the charity for the processing and any subsequent decisions. Personal records are kept in accordance with our Retention policy.