New Independent Age grant funding for organisations providing advice to older people in Manchester.
Independent Age’s ambition is to improve the lives of one million older people facing financial hardship by 2027. Independent Age recognise that one route to achieve this is to improve the support older people receive and their access to it, by funding charities who deliver advice.
Grants will be for a three-year period and eligible organisations will be able to apply for a minimum of £90,000 (£30,000 per year) and up to £150,000 (£50,000 per year). The Boosting Advice Fund will distribute up to £1.8 million of funding in total to deliver projects in five targeted areas across the UK including Manchester (NOT Greater Manchester).
Independent Age will provide funding for advice organisations whose work is helping older people improve their financial well-being and will achieve outcomes against the following themes:
- Income – Older people facing financial hardship will have sufficient income and receive the financial support they're entitled to e.g. Pension Credit, Attendance Allowance, Carers Allowance.
- Costs – Older people facing financial hardship are protected from unfair or avoidable costs. This might include work around: bill reduction, supporting an older person with housing repairs, dealing with rent increases and supporting an older person who is homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Please note: This fund is primarily directed towards organisations supporting older people within the Manchester City Council area; organisations can be located outside of this if they support older people within Manchester or be a Greater Manchester wide organisation. There’s no barrier to type of organisation that can apply, as long as they are a registered charity in the eligible income boundaries and can provide high quality advice in the area of income and costs for older people e.g. housing providers.
Who can apply?
The fund will award three-year grants to support charities that can provide advice to older people facing financial hardship. Organisations applying should:
- Have an established track record of providing high-quality advice
- Be able to demonstrate existing reach, or a robust plan to increase reach to older people aged 65+ facing financial hardship. You don’t have to be currently working with older people, but if you aren’t, Independent Age would like to hear about how you plan to.
- Provide face-to-face advice work as an element of their project, as we see this as an important option for many older people
- Be able to deliver in-person advice within one or more of the targeted geographical areas outlined above
The closing date for submissions of the expression of interest (EOI) is 2pm on Wednesday 26 February 2025.
The expression of interest asks for basic details and shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes to complete. The form double checks that organisations meet the eligibility criteria and asks for a general indication of how much funding an organisation may wish to apply for (which can be amended later). The majority of questions are tick boxes/radio buttons. Following the Expression of Interest closing, Independent Age will invite a smaller number of organisations to expand on their application, where much more time will be provided. This means organisations who are progressed to stage 2 have significant chance of being funded after providing more information.
If individual organisations have any particular needs or barriers regarding submitting an EOI or meeting the initial deadline, please contact Independent Age directly on [email protected] and they’ll be able to support.