FAQs

Actors and people working in stage management with at least two professional credits in the previous two years or one professional credit per year since the start of their career or ten professional credits or more over their career.

Applicants must also: 

• Be aged 18+
• Currently live in the UK
• Have a UK bank account
• Have less than £16,000 in household savings or under £23,250 if of pension age or experiencing a long-term health issue. 

For actors: 

• Professional credits refer to paid acting roles, for instance in theatre, TV, film and voiceover work (e.g. radio, video games). We can also consider lead roles in commercials, if your CV also includes the roles listed above. We do not consider extra, walk-on, or background work as professional credits. 
• Where an actor plays one role over a period of more than one year, we will consider this as one credit per year. For instance, if you held the same role in a production for two years, this would count as two credits. 

For Stage Managers:

• Each production which you have worked on in a paid capacity counts as one credit.  

We are not able to support students enrolled on a course at degree level or above. You can check the level of different courses at on the gov.uk website, degree courses are ‘level 4′. If you are studying a non-degree level course, please contact us to ask if you are eligible to apply. We are not able to assist with the cost of higher education courses.

The Actors’ Trust can consider financial assistance if you are unable to work due to your health, or other factors such as a recent bereavement or other major life events. We may also be able to help with the cost of treatment to support you back to work, and other one off items. Please contact us to discuss your situation further, and we can look at how we might be able to support you.

We can also assist the partners of actors or stage managers who have recently passed away.

Please be aware that the support we offer is on a case-by-case basis; we’ll keep in contact with you to make sure that any support we offer you is suitable for your circumstances.

Yes, if your career meets our eligibility criteria and we are able to consider assistance in your circumstances, we will send you a link to our application form. The form asks for details of your household income and expenditure, as well as any benefits you are receiving. Our financial support is means tested, meaning that we compare your household income to an independently set Minimum Income Standard. If your household income is below that standard and you are currently unable to work, we are likely to be able to provide financial assistance.

Yes. You can also use our free benefits calculator for an estimate of any benefits you may be entitled to. Our team can support you to access the right advice if you have any questions about your benefits or benefit entitlement. Our support is not intended to replace that available through benefits, so if we offer you financial support we do ask that you apply for any benefits you may be entitled to over the coming weeks, before we consider further assistance if that is required.

Yes, if you require medical treatment which is not available, or not quickly available on the NHS, we may be able to consider a grant to assist with the cost. We will request a treatment recommendation from a qualified practitioner, confirmation of the NHS waiting list / non-availability, and require any treatment we fund to be provided by a qualified practitioner. Please contact us and we would be happy to discuss in more detail whether we may be able to assist you.

In some instances we can consider assistance with care home fees. Please contact us to discuss how we may be able to support you. 

Unfortunately, we are only able to consider support from the point that we accept an application onwards, so we cannot backdate support.

We are unable to pay off debts (such as rent, mortgage, utility, or council tax arrears, overdrafts, credit card debt, or personal loans). If you are unable to work, we may still be able to provide a grant to assist with essential expenses. We are happy to assist anyone who contacts us about a debt with accessing appropriate advice for their situation.

We find it helpful to speak to or email potential applicants at the start of the process to ensure we understand you, your situation, and whether we are best placed to support. You can contact us via the online form  here. Or contact us to discuss making an application.  

We endeavour to get back to you with a decision as soon as we can, usually within 10 working days of receiving a completed application. During busy periods it may take slightly longer, but we will always keep you up to date on when you can expect to hear back from us.  

We are not an emergency or crisis support service. In an emergency, it is likely that other services will be best placed to support you: 

If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, call 999 or present at your nearest A&E. Whatever you’re going through, you can call Samaritans for free, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on 116 123.  

If you do not have any money for food, you can find your local foodbank on the Trussell Trust website.  

If you are an actor or work in stage management and want support or advice, please contact us on 0303 223 1110, or email hello@actorstrust.org.uk. If we are not able to assist you, we will always do our best to point you in the direction of other sources of support.  

Yes – all applications are confidential. Personal information is only shared with staff in order to make decisions on or provide support. We are able to approach other charities on your behalf but will only do so with your express permission. 

As part of your application, we ask you to:

• Complete our application form;  
• Attach bank statements covering at least the last month from your main account(s). This means any accounts that you make rent/mortgage, utility bills and council tax from, and that income from work and/or benefits payments are made into.
• If you require long-term support and live with a partner we will request confirmation of the total household income. This may be in the form of a bank statement, recent payslip, or tax return for you and your partner. We will only ask you for this if we require it. 
• Attach a fit note or recent letter from your doctor or medical professional. We only need a fit note or  medical letter if you are applying due to a health issue; if you are applying due to financial need in later life or due to a major life event, you do not need to include this. If your GP or clinician charges for the letter, we can reimburse you any reasonable fee. Please send in a copy of the receipt and details of how to pay you. We will reimburse you for this cost whether or not your application is successful.   
• Your Spotlight PIN. If you don’t have a Spotlight PIN, please attach a copy of your CV.
• If you are in receipt of benefits, we will ask for documentation showing this (for instance, a Universal Credit statement).