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Our funding programmes

We fund research, campaigning and policy work to improve living standards and personal finances for people on low to middle incomes in the UK.

Our funding programmes are focussed on three significant areas that influence financial well-being, as well as our cross-cutting climate change and household finances in the UK initiative.

An adequate income is key to improving financial well-being. We’re interested in helping people on low to middle incomes and how certain factors can make a big difference.

Our Income programme focuses on four areas:

Wages

We are particularly interested in pay and conditions for young adults and those in insecure work, including the self-employed.

We also want to explore how changes to shareholder dividends and wage distribution (including greater transparency) could increase pay for those on lower incomes.

Pensions

Our focus here is on pension income rather than pension savings, though we do include this as part of our Assets programme. 

We are interested in people’s experience navigating the complexities related to pension freedoms and ways to improve this experience. We also look at how to better support those still facing hardship in retirement

Taxation

We want to improve the taxation system, ensuring it is fair to those on low-to-middle incomes and adequately meets the needs of the public services it funds.

This includes work in relation to closing tax gaps and loopholes (for example between employees, the self-employed and company owner-managers); and reviewing the scope of taxes.
small model figure with crutches

Welfare benefits

We are keen to investigate ways the welfare benefits system could be improved. This includes work on payment levels, assessment processes, conditionality and sanctions, as well as more radical rethinking of the benefits system.

We are also interested in improving public attitudes in relation to social security.

Spending is part of daily life and having control of it is a key part of managing money. We’re interested in how to curb impulsive and compulsive spending. We are also interested in how those on low-to-medium incomes can access credit and the difficulties that arise if there are problems keeping up with payments.

Our Spending programme focuses on five areas:

Cost of living

We want to look at ways to reduce the cost of living for people on low to middle incomes, including housing, energy and transport. We are also interested in tackling loyalty penalties and poverty premiums.

Payment problems

Our focus here is in relation to understanding and improving practice when people get into difficulties repaying debt. This includes examining the role of government, creditors, regulators, debt advice providers and employers.

Consumer spending

We support work that addresses the negative effects of consumerism, in particular impulsive and compulsive spending. As part of this, we are also interested in shifting public attitudes in relation to spending.

Borrowing

This is about tackling problematic lending and borrowing, including high-cost, short-term credit and other forms of lending, e.g. credit cards. This includes increasing knowledge, developing solutions, encouraging good practice amongst firms, and effective regulation, including exploring a universal cap on consumer credit. We are particularly interested in the role of government and employers in providing credit.

Problem gambling

We want to address the issues caused by problem gambling and examine the role of government, the industry, regulators and the use of financial technology. We are also interested in identifying gaps in provision for those needing help and support, and how this can be funded.

When you have nothing to fall back on, you are unable to deal with economic shocks. Four-in-ten of us have savings of less than £500 and a majority of people do not save regularly. Although wealth overall in the UK has grown, it remains unfairly distributed.

Our Assets programme focuses on four areas:

General saving

We want more people to save more regularly. This includes improving people’s understanding of savings including whether schemes designed to turn non-savers into savers and current savers into more frequent savers are successful. We are also interested in how the importance of saving is communicated to those on low-to-middle incomes and how this could be improved.

Retirement saving

This is about how to increase the amounts people save for their retirement, including enhancing auto-enrolment and extending it to groups not currently covered by it. We are also interested in how employers can be encouraged to contribute beyond the minimum to employee’s retirement savings. We are keen to explore how pension schemes can better share investment risk via a more collective approach, e.g. collective defined benefit schemes.

Taxation

Our focus here is in supporting improvements to the taxation system, ensuring it is fair to those on low-to-middle incomes and adequately meets the needs of the public services it funds. This includes work in relation to closing tax gaps and loopholes (e.g. inheritance tax); and making taxes fairer. As part of this, we are also interested in shifting public attitudes in relation to the taxation of assets.

Housing

We want to examine and assess the value of products and policies which increase home ownership for people on low to middle incomes.

For our Climate Change and Household Finances in the UK funding stream, we seek applications from organisations for policy, research and campaigning work which will protect and improve the household finances of people on low-to-middle incomes in the UK during the transition to Net Zero and adjustment to climate change.

This focus area sits alongside our existing funding programmes. Please read our funding process and funding guidelines alongside the following information before deciding to apply and to guide your application.

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Funding guidelines

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