Professionals Aid Council

The Professionals Aid Council, operating as the Professionals Aid Guild (PAG) since its founding in 1914, is a longstanding UK occupational charity dedicated to alleviating financial hardship among professionals and graduates who lack support from discipline-specific benevolent funds. Its core mission is to relieve poverty, enhance welfare, and preserve dignity for those with university degrees or equivalent qualifications facing redundancy, illness, disability, family breakdown, or retirement poverty, guided by values of inclusivity, respect, confidentiality, fairness, and compassionate responsiveness. Distinctively, PAG adopts an open policy embracing a broad spectrum of professions—from teaching and law to engineering and medicine—serving as a vital safety-net where sector-specific aid falls short.

It prioritizes direct financial grants for UK-resident qualified professionals over 18 (or their dependents/partners) living below the poverty line, funding urgent living costs, essential household expenses, children's education (including uniforms and travel), training, specialist advice, and emergency relief for acute distress. Support targets relief of poverty, disability aid, elderly and youth welfare, and educational needs, always tailored via casework to individual circumstances rather than organizational projects.

Eligible applicants include individuals or representatives from statutory, voluntary, or charitable bodies acting on their behalf, with no income/size limits or geographic restrictions across the UK; key criteria require prior applications to relevant occupational funds and proof of qualifications/hardship. Grants typically range from £250–£3,000 (most £500–£1,500), awarded one-off for personal needs only—no capital, core organizational costs, or unrestricted funding. Applications are unsolicited via secure online portal (post accepted, no email), reviewed on a rolling basis by a volunteer Case Committee meeting eight times yearly (every 6–7 weeks), with decisions in several weeks. PAG's volunteer-led, impartial approach uniquely differentiates it for broad professional hardship unmet elsewhere.