How Fair Shot works — free, independent, credit-free

What is on this site

Two categories of thing: a directory of programmes, and a set of guides for filing them.

Benefits — regular payments from the state based on income, age, disability, caring or employment. You never repay these.
Grants — one-off or purpose-specific money, usually from government or a charitable fund. You keep it.
Loans — borrowable money with capped, zero, or no-credit-score requirements. Repayable, but chosen for safety rather than speed.

Every entry lists who qualifies, which documents you need, the filing steps, what gets an application approved, and what to do if you have no paperwork at all.

Where the data comes from

Each programme entry was written against its official source and links only to government or established non-profit domains — GOV.UK, gov.uk, ssa.gov, studentaid.gov, hud.gov, fns.usda.gov, acf.hhs.gov, healthcare.gov, va.gov and their equivalents. There are no affiliate links, no broker referrals and no paid placements anywhere in the directory.

Figures quoted are the published 2026 rates. UK amounts are the 2026/27 benefit rates; US amounts are the current federal figures. Each page records when it was last checked.

Rules change Benefit rates reset each April in the UK and each October for SNAP in the US. Programmes open and close their funding windows. Confirm the current figures on the official link before you rely on a number.

What we will never ask you for

Your credit details. There is no credit field anywhere on this site, and no credit check is ever run.
Payment. Every application route listed is free. If somebody charges you a fee to submit a benefits or grant application, they are not the official service.
An account. The quiz runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you answer is sent anywhere or stored.
Your documents. This site tells you what to send to the government office. It never receives or uploads paperwork itself.

What this site is not

Please read this bit

Fair Shot is not a government agency, is not affiliated with any government, and cannot file anything on your behalf. It is general information, not legal, financial or benefits advice.

Eligibility rules have exceptions that depend on your individual circumstances. A decision about your claim is made by the agency you apply to, not by anything on this page.

If your situation is complex — a disability claim, an immigration question, a debt or housing crisis — speak to a qualified adviser. In the UK that means Citizens Advice or a welfare rights service; in the US, Legal Aid, a HUD-approved housing counsellor, or a benefits attorney. Both are free.

Why the focus on missing documents

The most common reason an application stalls is not ineligibility. It is a missing payslip, a lost ID, an address that cannot be evidenced, or a deadline that passed while somebody went looking for paperwork.

So the site treats document problems as a first-class case rather than an edge case. Every programme entry has a section on what to substitute, and there is a dedicated guide on filing when you have nothing at all. The rule that holds across nearly every programme: open the claim first, complete the file afterwards.

Hosting and cost

The whole site is static HTML, CSS and JavaScript. There is no server, no database, no build step and no tracking. It runs from a folder — open index.html directly, or drop it on GitHub Pages, Netlify or Cloudflare Pages for free.