Kent Police Benevolent Fund

Here for You – When You Need It Most

The Kent Police Benevolent Fund exists to support serving and retired Kent Police officers, police staff, and their families, during times of hardship, distress or unexpected difficulty. We provide a trusted, confidential source of help when life takes an unforeseen turn.

Whether the challenge is financial pressure, illness or injury, or the wider impact of health issues on a member’s family, the Fund offers practical support with compassion and discretion.

What Support Can the Fund Provide?

The Benevolent Fund Management Committee has complete discretion to consider any circumstance where hardship or distress is being caused. Assistance is tailored to individual needs and most commonly takes the form of grants, although welfare loans may be considered in exceptional cases.

Support may include but is not limited to: - Financial help dealing with long term debts causing significant hardship or some unexpected expenditure - Assistance following injury (on or off duty) or health issues - Support is extended where illness affects a member’s spouse/partner or children - Help with costs linked to treatment, diagnosis or recovery

Key Membership Benefits

Membership provides access to a wide range of benefits, including: - Discretionary grants for a wide variety of welfare matters such as a contribution towards medical equipment or travel expenses during hospital treatment or surgery - Medical Consultation grants towards an initial private medical consultation where NHS delays occur - Medical Support grants as a contribution towards the cost of a private diagnostic scan (MRI etc.) – Flint House Travel grants for members attending the police rehabilitation centre - Death grant of £2,500, payable to the member’s family on the member’s death - This may also be paid to the member in the event of the death of their spouse or partner

(A full list of benefits is available via the Member Benefits link.)

Membership – Who Can Join?

Serving Police Officers and Police Staff (PSEs)

Membership is open to all serving officers and staff
Benefits are identical for all serving police officers and police staff.

Retired Members

Officers and staff members who were subscribed for at least two years immediately prior to retirement may continue membership of the fund for life
Retired members retain access to the same benefits as serving officers (except death grant for retired PSE members – see below).
Police officers who are subscribing at the time of retirement are auto enrolled as pensioner members. They contribute until aged 65 when subscriptions cease.

Cost of Membership

Serving Police Officers

£3.60 per month
- £2.61 contributed goes directly to the Benevolent Fund
- 99p supports two other National police charities: Police Children’s Fund and Police Care UK

Police Pensioners

£2.80 per month
No reduction in benefits
Officers over the age of 65 remain members for life with no further contributions required

Police Staff (PSEs)

£2.00 per month
Identical benefits to police officers
Death grant payable only if the staff member is still serving at the time of death of the member or their spouse/partner.
Retired staff who subscribed for at least two years before retirement remain members for life with no further contributions required after retirement.

Support Beyond Financial Help

Annual Christmas cards are sent to all our retired members and their widows/widowers, wherever they live in the world.
Where a member or their spouse/partner dies leaving children under 18, the Fund provides a Christmas grant for each child, payable annually until age 18
Members have access to Money Guided, a financial management app offering advice on a wide range of financial matters
- Available exclusively to Fund members and sponsored by the Benevolent Fund

What the Fund Cannot Help With

To ensure fairness and sustainability, the Fund is unable to assist with: - Private healthcare (except for the limited exceptions outlined above) - Legal fees

Contact the Benevolent Fund

The Fund is administered by: - Gary Sutton – Fund Secretary - Debbie O’Neill – Office Administrator

Both work part-time from home. Email is the quickest and easiest way to contact us:

📧 office@kpbf.org.uk

If you would prefer a telephone call, please include your phone number in your email and a member of the team will contact you as soon as possible.

Kent Police Benevolent Fund – Supporting our police family, in service and beyond.

We are very grateful to anyone and everyone who has shared their story and contributed to our testimonials page.

If you are one of the people who we have been able to help over the years, and you would be willing to share your story for the benefit of others, whether it is something recent, or something from the past, every example is as valid now as it was then, so we would be very grateful if you would get in touch.

Donations

If you would like to make a donation, you can do so by emailing office@kpbf.org.uk, or by following this link, DONATE, or by using the adjacent QR code