Charities, social enterprises and other not-for-profit organisations are being invited to apply for £7m of funding from the Money Advice Service for projects which help to improve financial capability.
The What Works Fund has been launched across the UK to help organisations pilot new approaches for improving financial capability and to evaluate their projects. It has been set up to “provide financial support for projects which are focused on building evidence of the types of interventions that can make a measurable difference to people’s financial capability”.
The Money Advice Service said that the funding will be available for the evaluation of existing interventions as well as piloting and evaluating new approaches. There will also be funding available to scale up existing programmes which have already demonstrated results to test the effectiveness of the project when reaching a wider group of people.
Research has found that four in ten adults in the UK are not in control of their finances. The Financial Capaility Strategy, a ten-year UK-wide plan aiming to support people's ability to manage money on a day-to-day basis, prepare for and manage life events, and deal with financial difficulties was launched in October 2015. The What Works Fund has been launched in support of this.
Caroline Rookes, chief executive for the Money Advice Service, said: “We are pleased to be able to channel this funding to organisations to deliver projects that can really make a difference to people’s financial wellbeing. It is vitally important to evaluate which interventions work best so that we can channel our efforts in the right places. This will help organisations from across the sector to fund and deliver interventions that we know make a difference to people’s financial capability.
"It will also help to provide the new money guidance organisation with information needed to commission effective services from day one.
“We would like to see as many eligible projects as possible applying for funding so that we can distribute the fund most effectively across the UK. This is an important step on our journey to achieve our wider aim of improving everyday money management and financial capability across the UK."
The programme is being funded through the Money Advice Service’s existing budget, which was outlined in its business plan published last month.
Organisations have until Friday 8 July to express initial interest. More information on the fund and how to apply is here.
