Physical health

To be eligible to apply for welfare support from the charity you must:

• Be aged 18 or over, living in the UK, with the right to live and work in the UK and with a UK bank account
• Not have more than £10,000 savings

You will also need to be one of the following criteria:

• A working musician with a track record of making 40% of your income from music over the past two years or longer. Exceptions apply for musicians with a long-term health condition and/​or disability that impacts your ability to earn.
• A retired musician whose principal career was in music where you earned 40% or more of your income as a musician over at least 5 years during your career

Full eligibility criteria can be found here. We strongly recommend you read these before making an application.

If you do not meet this criteria then you may still be eligible for our Emerging Musicians’ Health Scheme.

We need to ensure our help goes to those who need it most, so we will need to consider your savings and income. 

We are unable to provide financial support to people with savings of more than £10,000 (this includes your partner’s savings, if you live with one). Some exceptions to this apply.

We will ignore some savings in assessing this amount, e.g. if you have a reasonable amount set aside for your annual tax bill.

We wouldn’t normally take into account the value of pension funds, your property (if applicable), or musical instruments and equipment.

When you apply, we ask for details of your income and expenditure to help us decide the level of support we may provide.

You can apply at any stage, however we strongly recommend using the NHS prior to making an application to us.

If the treatment you require isn’t available on the NHS or has a wait time of over 3 months, then this is where our support can have the most impact. 

We are unable to provide financial support towards any medical treatment or services that have already taken place before an application has been approved and our support has been confirmed to you in writing. 

If you have a health problem that affects your ability to work, we may be able to cover the costs of an assessment with a specialist clinician from the British Association of Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM).

After this assessment our team will work with BAPAM to determine how best to support you. If you meet the above eligibility criteria this may include us supporting towards the cost of medical bills if your treatment is unavailable on the NHS, or if waiting times impact your ability to work as a musician. 

Meanwhile, we may be able to provide financial welfare support to help ease the pressure while you are unable to work due to your health issue.

If you are applying for support towards surgery costs, then please apply and await our funding decision before booking the procedure.

We are unable to provide financial support towards general living costs for musicians in circumstances where there has been a downturn in work or to replace lost earnings.

To ensure we are helping as many musicians as possible, at times of high demand we prioritise those that have not received financial support from us in the past.

We may be able to support eligible musicians who are unable to work within music due to current physical or mental health issues, as well as support with certain welfare situations such as musicians of retirement age, or with long-term health issues or disabilities. 

For more information about the financial support we can offer, please visit our welfare support page.

Please note we are unable to provide financial welfare support for students and emerging musicians (see below) — this support is limited to help towards medical costs only. 

We cannot provide support in response to short-term illness (such as Covid, flu or other respiratory diseases). 

We are not able to fund healthcare treatments outside the UK or pay for any medical treatment or services that have already taken place.

If you are a student or have only just started your career in music then further exemptions apply — please see below.

We are currently unable to fund some treatments, including but not limited to:

• Ayurvedic medicine
• Crystal healing
• Kinesiology
• Homeopathy
• Naturopathy
• Neuro-linguistic programming

If you are a student or have only just started your career in music then further exemptions apply — please see below.

We can offer help through our Emerging Musicians Health Scheme providing you are either:

• a full-time undergraduate or postgraduate student within the UK, studying a course where music performance constitutes at least 50% of the course criteria

or

• able to demonstrate earnings from music within the last 6 months. This includes paid work as a DJ, sound engineer, songwriter or performer

Please find details at the bottom of this page for more information.

Yes. Our team will refer you to BAPAM for an assessment, just as they would if you had a physical illness.

You can also access an accredited counsellor who will offer emotional support, advice and information by calling our Music Minds Matter helpline on 0808 802 8008.

To be eligible to apply for the Emerging Musicians’ Health Scheme from the charity you must: 

• Be aged 18 or over, living in the UK, with the right to live and work in the UK and with a UK bank account 

• Not have more than £10,000 savings (exceptions apply — see below) 

You will also need to have a music performance-related health problem and meet one of the following criteria: 

• A full-time undergraduate or postgraduate student within the UK, studying a course where music performance constitutes at least 50% of the course criteria 

• Able to demonstrate earnings from an eligible role in music within the last 6 months 

You can only receive support through the Emerging Musicians Health Scheme once. Therefore if you have received this support previously you will not be eligible to apply again. 

To be eligible you must not have more than £10,000 in savings, or have a second or other additional property. 

However, some exceptions apply to unavoidable financial obligations. These are as follows: 

• Money held aside for a tax bill 

• Purchase of primary home you will live within and in the process of buying 

• Purchase of required medical or care equipment 

• Up to £15,000 of care home fees 

• Up to £10,000 in savings towards music education fees 

• Essential maintenance on property 

• Up to £15,000 in parental leave savings if you are due to stop work for parental leave within the next six months 

Some further capital eligibility guidelines apply, including on assets you expect to receive from a Trust Fund or dividends, and any gifts, loans or awards that exceed £3,000. Please contact us if you require further information. 

The first step will be to arrange a free assessment with BAPAM which you can do so here: book an appointment

If you are subsequently told you need a short-term treatment that isn’t available promptly on the NHS, we may be able to help with up to £1,000 towards the costs. 

We consider short term treatment to be treatment focused on addressing immediate needs to achieve specific goals. For example, short courses of physiotherapy to help with performance related injuries to allow you to continue your studies and/​or return to performing. 

Please note that we can’t help towards costs for health problems not directly linked to music performance, routine dental work, those which are pre-existing and need long-term treatment and we are unable to reimburse costs for treatment that has already taken place. 

Many music colleges offer assistance to students experiencing performance-related health problems and we expect students to first access any help available from their college before applying. 

If you are a music student but don’t meet the criteria above, you can still receive a free assessment from BAPAM but will not be able to apply for financial support towards ongoing treatment costs. 

To apply, please first arrange an appointment with a BAPAM clinician for a free assessment by calling 020 8167 4775.

Once you have had your appointment and received a letter from BAPAM which recommends treatments you can apply for support via our online portal.

You will need to: 

• Upload your BAPAM letter which must be dated within the past 6 months 

Students will need to: 

• Upload your enrolment letter or a copy of your student ID 

• Upload evidence that your course is at least 50% music performance if your course is mixed discipline (e.g. Musical Theatre students) 

If applying as an emerging musician you will need to: 

• Upload evidence of income from music within the past 6 months. 

All applicants will also need to complete and submit the musicians profile which is accessible from the login landing page.