Funding to support older people in the UK with the cost-of-living crisis.

The charity, Independent Age is providing a total of 25 grants of £40,000 each to charities and community organisations across the UK.

The funding is intended to ‘get more money into the pockets of older people and help ensure they do not have to choose between buying food to eat and heating their homes this winter’.

Applications will be accepted from registered or exempt UK charities, charitable incorporated organisations (CIO) or community interest companies (CIC) with an annual turnover of at least £100,000.

There is particular interest in local community based charities that are providing advice, practical help and support to older people in their neighbourhoods, where such work can be scaled up appropriately.

The funding is intended for projects such as the following:

• Advice and information initiatives – such as helplines, drop-in sessions or community outreach work – that provide guidance to establish whether someone is entitled to relevant benefits.
• Active support programmes that, through guidance to fill in forms and the like, help over 65s to claim benefits they are entitled to.
• Budgeting advice and/or support to access better energy deals.
• Debt advice, where an organisation is appropriately registered to give this.
• Short-term help, such as access to grants to deal with one-off costs or emergencies or subsidised property maintenance, for older people already struggling financially.

To be eligible, projects must be in addition to or an extension of existing work, take place within the UK and be publicly accessible.

The funding can be used flexibly, for example to cover the costs of an additional role to deliver the work, or to produce resources to help expand the work being done.

Projects should be ready to start from November 2022 and completed by 31 December 2023.

There is a two-stage application process.

Phase 1 applications will be accepted from 1 September to 16 September 2022.

 

How To Apply

There is a two phase application process:

• Phase 1 applications will be accepted from 1 September to 16 September 2022 with notification of decisions on 3 October 2022.
• Groups that are successfu in Phase 1 will be invited to apply in Phase 2.

Guidance notes, FAQs, and the application form can be found on the Independent Age website.