Epsom and Ewell's new bursaries pay up to £750 towards courses and £350 towards clubs, for Homes for Ukraine guests in the first 18 months of a UPE visa.
Ukrainian residents in Epsom and Ewell can now apply for up to £750 towards a course or qualification. Under-18s can get up to £350 towards a club or an activity. The borough council opened both schemes on 17 September.
There is a clock on them. Eligibility runs out when a guest passes the first 18 months of their Ukraine Permission Extension visa, and the borough council itself is abolished on 1 April 2027.
The £750 bursary: what it pays for
The Employment Support and Upskilling Bursary covers training that leads somewhere. The council’s scheme page lists what it will fund:
- accredited courses and vocational training
- professional qualifications
- exam fees
- essential learning materials
It also sets out what it will not fund:
- courses from providers that are not accredited or approved
- hobbies, personal interests or recreational activities
- starting or financing a business, although accredited courses in business development or entrepreneurship can be supported
The council’s stated aim is to “bridge any gaps between their previous experience or qualifications from outside the UK and the UK job market”. That is the practical problem the money is aimed at: a qualification earned in Ukraine that a British employer will not recognise.
Who can apply, and how
For the £750 bursary you must be aged 18 or over, and either currently hosted through Homes for Ukraine or within the first 18 months of your Ukraine Permission Extension visa.
The application asks for three things:
- details of the course or training you want to do
- the course length and its cost
- a short statement explaining how the course will help you reach your career goals
The form is published in English and in Ukrainian on the council’s Supporting Ukraine page.
The £350 bursary is for children, and is paid to the club
The Community Connections Bursary works differently. It is for under-18s, the application must be made by a parent or legal guardian, and the money goes direct to the activity provider rather than to the family. The parent or guardian picks the provider.
The council describes it as covering membership fees for clubs, groups and activities that “encourage social interaction, community involvement and personal development”. The eligibility test is the same 18-month UPE window, or current hosting under Homes for Ukraine.
The money hosts get is winding down
This is the part of the council’s scheme page that has not been reported elsewhere, and it matters to the households doing the hosting.
Two things are changing:
- if a guest’s initial 18-month UPE permission ends after 31 March 2027, thank you payments continue, but “at the standard Central Government rate of £350 per month”
- once that initial 18-month permission has expired, “‘thank you’ payments to hosts will not continue”
Hosts also now have to reapply for thank you payments if their guest has been out of the country for more than 28 days, and the council asks to be told whenever a guest travels. New arrivals still qualify for the £200 per person welcome payment, paid on a card.
The UPE scheme itself gives 18 months on a first extension and a further 24 months on a second, applications are free, and they can be made within 90 days of the current permission expiring.
How many people this affects
Government figures put the number lower than the council does, and both are worth knowing.
The council says it has “welcomed more than 250 people” through Homes for Ukraine since 2022. The Home Office and the housing ministry count people by the sponsor’s address, and on that basis Epsom and Ewell has seen 265 confirmed visa applications, 238 visas issued and 212 arrivals in the UK, on data received on 30 June 2026.
The two figures are counting different things. The government’s is a running total of arrivals matched to a sponsor’s postcode, and about two per cent of records nationally have no postcode that can be matched at all. The council’s is its own count of people it has supported.
Across Surrey the total is 5,010 arrivals. Elmbridge, next door, has 813. The full dataset is published by district on GOV.UK.
What the council has already done
The announcement lists the support that came before the bursaries: drop-in sessions for guests looking for private accommodation, a helpdesk, the borough’s first Festival of Ukraine, creative wellbeing sessions and funded trips through the Epsom and Ewell Refugee Network to the Tower of London, Polesden Lacey and Littlehampton beach. The council and the network also publish a quarterly newsletter for hosts and guests.
Councillor Clive Woodbridge, chair of the Community and Wellbeing Committee, called the bursary “a practical investment in people’s futures” and said it would help residents “gain valuable skills, qualifications and experience that can open doors to enjoyable and fulfilling employment, and greater financial independence”.
What it means for you
- If you are a guest and you want to retrain, apply now rather than later. Eligibility ends with the first 18 months of your UPE visa, and the council has not published a closing date for the fund itself.
- Get the course confirmed before you apply. The form needs the provider, the length and the cost, and the provider has to be accredited or approved.
- If you are hosting, check when your guest’s initial 18-month permission ends. Your thank you payments stop when it does, and they drop to the £350 a month government rate for permissions ending after 31 March 2027.
- Tell the council if your guest travels. More than 28 days out of the country means reapplying for the payments.
- For a child’s club or team, the family does not handle the money. Choose the provider, then apply; the council pays them direct.
Epsom and Ewell Borough Council is replaced by East Surrey Council on 1 April 2027. Nothing published so far says what happens to either bursary after that date. The Homes for Ukraine team can be reached at homesforukraine@epsom-ewell.gov.uk.
Other council schemes running in the borough this autumn are in our report on free Young Legends activities for 9 to 11 year olds. What the council is deciding, and when, is on Epsom planning.
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