Optical Benevolent Fund: changes, support, and increasing awareness

Change is on the horizon for the Optical Benevolent Fund of the Association of Optometrists and The College of Optometrists as, in the new year, the fund is set to be relaunched with a new website and name: OptomHelp.

OptomHelp (the Optical Benevolent Fund) aims to alleviate financial hardship for optometrists and their dependents.

Lynne Brown, a retired dispensing optician and administrative secretary for the Optical Benevolent Fund, explained the reason behind the changes.

She said: “We feel that Benevolent Fund is an old-fashioned term and not one that everyone relates to. We feel OptomHelp describes what it does on the tin and makes us sound more up-to-date and approachable.”

Those behind the fund want to raise awareness of the support available and ensure that it appeals to everyone within the profession who needs it.

Brown said: “We know from our colleagues in other allied medical charities that there are more people in optometry who might need our help, but it is a case of awareness and making ourselves a household name.”

The fund has looked at services in dentistry, veterinary, and pharmacy sectors, and plan to use a similar strategy to ensure “people know where to come when they’re going through a crisis,” Brown said.

It has taken some time to set up the relaunch, with plans for the name-change requiring sanction from the Charity Commission, but the team hope to be up-and-running under the new name soon into the new year.

Answering enquiries

The charity has received 38 enquiries in the past 11 months. This is compared to the 50 seen in total in 2024.

Brown shared: “We have taken on more staff so that we are prepared for an increase in the number of applications, which is likely now that we are re-branding and ramping up our publicity efforts.”

The fund has seen more enquiries from pre-registration optometrists and those newer to the profession, and fewer enquiries from retirees and widowed older people than previously.

Brown noted: “We are receiving more applications from young people who have not only accumulated debt from their university years but also from additional loans that they have taken out once they have started in practice. If they suffer illness or any other adversity that results in their not being able to work and earn for a period of time, their debt situation can become unmanageable."

The fund also hears from people who are experiencing poor physical and mental health, and has offered support to some people recovering from serious operations or cancer treatment.

Brown said: “We understand that modern life is stressful and brings with it a lot of pressures. There is a strong link between financial pressures and mental health distress, so we sometimes offer a package that includes help with the cost of counselling.”

Loss of income during illness can especially be a problem for locums. Brown urged self-employed optometrists to take out critical illness cover and income protection.

The fund has also helped new parents with return-to-work courses following maternity leave and assisted people while they are between jobs, relocating or returning to the profession.

Brown shared: “Parents with young children sometimes find it difficult to strike a good family work-life balance. In many families, both parents work, and some parents support themselves and their children single-handedly.”

Avenues of support

OptomHelp aims to help people recover from challenging events, such as bereavement, ill health, a period of unemployment, or other crises.

Assistance is typically provided for a short-term period to help people through the worst and plan for the future, Brown explained, adding that only in cases where beneficiaries are diagnosed with life-long debilitating conditions does the fund offer a more long-term solution.

Brown shared: “We can help in a variety of ways and look at all the possible causes of an applicant’s hardship so we can provide the optimum solution. We may assist with general living expenses while an applicant is job hunting. Sometimes we supplement state benefits while people recover from illness and are not able to work.”

“We’ve helped out with rent during particularly lean periods, assisted with bereavement expenses, and contributed towards professional fees,” she added.

The Optical Benevolent Fund does not settle debts, Brown pointed out.

“Formal debt management plans are available, and we can refer our beneficiaries to agencies that can help them put strategies in place to deal with unmanageable debt that has become a stranglehold,” she explained.

The cost of expert advice is borne by the fund, which also signposts beneficiaries to other sources of help.

Reflecting on the factors affecting households currently, Brown acknowledged the potential impact of the rising cost of living.

She said: “The cost of rent and mortgages has risen and supermarket spending has definitely increased. Public transport fares, car fuel, and energy prices are expensive, and all these factors deplete the amount of household income that is available for day-to-day living expenses – items such as clothes, after school clubs and activities, family holidays, and all the other things that make a claim on our income.”