Access Support: Personal Access Costs
This page explains what Personal Access Costs are and how to include personal access costs in your application.
Access Support: Personal Access Costs
Personal Access Costs
Personal Access Costs pay for the costs to remove barriers to being able to manage your grant or deliver your project. This is for the core team of the people you are delivering the project with.
Some examples are: a BSL interpreter, a notetaker, or specialist tutor for admin support.
This is separate to Access Support. Personal Access Costs are for after you are awarded funding. Access Support is for support applying before or for funding.
Your application must include any extra access costs to:
deliver your project
manage your grant online. This includes managing your user account profile, asking for payments and sending us activity reports.
You can use our grant towards these costs. Include them under the budget line Personal Access Costs in your application.
In your budget, make sure you allow for any access support you might need during or at the end of the project. Examples include help with completing a payment request or filling in your activity form.
We can’t increase the size of a grant once it has been awarded. Make sure you plan ahead and consider our reporting requirements.
Costs can only be for the project period (between your project start date and end date) and must be specific to your project. We are not able to cover costs for support that is unrelated to the activity.
The amount of access costs you can include in your application should be relevant to your activity and the size of your ask.
Only include costs that are directly related to the project you are delivering, or the management of the grant.
We’re unable to support general access costs that aren’t specifically related to the project we’re funding.
As the grant holder, you are responsible for paying personal access costs that we fund.
Costs for caring responsibilities or costs for making your activity accessible to the people experiencing your project, including participants, can be included as part of your project budget but should not be included as personal access costs.
How to include personal access costs in your application
Before you start your application form, you will fill in an eligibility questionnaire that asks whether your budget includes personal access costs.
We don’t want your personal access costs to affect whether or not you can apply. For this reason, we do not include your access costs when we work out the financial limit that applies to your project.
Example 1:
You’re applying to Developing your Creative Practice. The maximum amount you can apply for is £12,000.
Your application is for £12,000 and you also need an extra £500 in personal access costs to manage this.
We will consider this as an application for £12,000, rather than £12,500 and you will be eligible to apply.
Example 2:
You’re applying to National Lottery Project Grants. If you apply for £30,500 in total but £600 of this is for your personal access costs, we view this as an application for £29,900.
In this case, you would need to use the ‘How to apply’ guidance document for applications for Under £30,000 when making your application.
Filling in your application form and budget
The figure you gave for expected Personal Access Costs in the eligibility questionnaire will show in the basic details section of the application form. It will also show in the Personal Access Costs budget line in the expenditure table.
If you need to change this figure, edit the number in the Basic details section of your application. The figure in your expenditure table will then update itself.
Only include future costs that you will need to help you to deliver your project or manage your grant.
Please include as much detail in the expenditure line description. We need to understand what you’re going to use the personal access cost money on, and how it’s specific to your needs and project.
Our grants cannot cover any activity or spending that takes place before we can make a decision.
Access to Work
The government’s Access to Work scheme helps to create a more accessible work environment. It provides grants to remove barriers that disabled people face in undertaking paid employment. Access to Work: A guide for the Arts and Culture Sector is a useful resource created by Disability Arts Online.
Please note we can’t pay for costs that are already covered or can be covered by Access to Work.