Benevolent fund

The CSP Members' Benevolent Fund (MBF) helps chartered physiotherapists, physiotherapy assistants and students who are experiencing financial difficulties. This may arise for example when a member has an accident, serious illness or relationship break-up. Equally, a retired member may have to struggle on an inadequate income.

See further down this page for more information on the MBF:

• The use of gifts
• How to make a donation
• Who can apply?
• Queries
• Interview with Fund Chair Ann Compton (Frontline, 2001)

The use of gifts

Some of our awards are one off to cover a short period of time when the beneficiary is incapacitated for one reason or another, but the majority of awards are used to supplement regular allowances given when the need is great and the problem long term.

Over the years MBF has helped many members with either a single grant or regular financial assistance to meet living costs, and, for example help with the provision of household appliances, heating, childcare and transport. They have also been used to contribute towards special equipment to aid independent living, or with household repairs.

How to make a donation

The MBF is reliant on members to make donations to maintain the service currently offered. You can make a single donation or a regular contribution through a Gift Aid or you can choose to leave money to the MBF in your will. You never know, it may be you who one day needs help through no fault of your own. To find out more about making a donation, please use the contact details at the bottom of this page.

Who can apply?

The Fund's monies are available to help anyone who is or has been a member of the Society (whether in the UK or overseas), a Physiotherapy Assistant on the Assistant's List, or is currently registered as a Physiotherapy Student, provided that their capital does not exceed the maximum figure used by the Department of Social Security to decide on eligibility.

If you need help or know someone who needs help, do not hesitate to contact the Society for an application form. All applications are dealt with in complete confidence and details given are not revealed outside the membership of the MBF committee. Only committee members are involved in making decisions about the amount of support to be given to an applicant.

Queries

Interview with Fund Chair Ann Compton

More physiotherapists in their 20s and 30s are being helped by the CSP Members Benevolent Fund (MBF) because of financial hardship caused when relationships break down. According to fund chair Ann Compton, the trend during the past few years has been towards helping younger physiotherapists, often when children are involved in the break-up of partners.

She said another noticeable tendency had been an increase in the number of members with mental health problems seeking help from the fund. Ann said the MBF was there for physiotherapists when the future was looking bleak: when savings were low or non-existent, outgoings outstripped income, 'when however you do the sums you are going to end up in debt, when you have already cut back as much as you can'.

However, she urged, 'don't get into debt. Get in touch with your benevolent fund'. The MBF is available to all members on the register, including students and assistants, whether working, on sick leave, in a family break, unemployed or retired.

It has helped students where changes in their parents' lives, such as redundancy, have not been taken into account in awarding grants (which are means tested on their parents' income in the previous year), leaving them short of money for rent, food and other essentials.

Help to retired members had mainly been to enable them to live in the home of their choice, Ann said. 'Many did not receive pensions or only small ones, while others thought that their income would be sufficient but interest rates and inflation have not matched. Our help has improved their quality of life so their remaining years are not just existence.'

The fund has given members grants for essential furnishings and helped with retraining costs for those unable to continue practising physiotherapy through ill health or because of an accident. Others with a disability have received aids and equipment and the fund has helped support those with chronic disability or deteriorating conditions. Payments do not affect Social Security income.

Back to top

The most poignant insight into how the fund operates comes in the letters from members who have been helped. Three give a flavour. 'But for MBF I would have been bankrupt and homeless,' writes one. 'Knowing the children had security has made it possible for me to pick up the reins of my own life,' says another, while a third explains, 'I've now settled into my new career, which I could not have done without your help. Thank you for giving me back my independence'.

There will be a collection for the fund at this year's Congress and Ann hopes members will give generously. One grateful beneficiary, she explained, admitted previously to putting a bit of loose change grudgingly in the bucket, never thinking that one day she would need help. Thankfully, said Ann, the fund could support her when she needed it.

'We hope that it won't happen to you,' she stressed, 'but if it does, remember, the MBF is here to help. But only if you have helped by supporting your Benevolent Fund now.'