Independent Age launched the Cost-of-Living Fund in 2021 to help older people struggling to cope with the soaring inflation and living costs sweeping the UK after the pandemic. The national charity aims to combat poverty in later life and sees local organisations as a key part of the solution. The response to the initial £2 million fund was so overwhelming that a second round of an additional 1 million was launched in 2023. Across both rounds, Independent Age funded 77 organisations to support over 50,000 older people and unlock over £26 million in additional benefits. This represents a return of almost 900%.
When the fund was launched its aims were simple: support local organisations to help increase the amount of money in the pockets of older people. The help offered by funded organisations included: support with benefit applications, housing support, debt advice, and accessing social tariffs. The benefit numbers alone suggest that the fund achieved its initial aims, but that is only part of the story. Many of the 50,000 older people supported received advice, support, or simply companionship that cannot so easily be measured.
Increasing impact and widening support
Having enough staff to keep up with demand was a key problem for almost every organisation prior to receiving funding. For the Vauxhall Community Law and Information Centre in Liverpool: “Being able to have extra capacity specifically for supporting older people really helped with demand but also allowed us to tailor our services specifically for this group.” Out of 27 grant partners in the second round of the Cost-of-Living Fund, 20 used the funding to employ new staff, and 10 were able to increase the hours of existing staff.
The money also meant grant partners could move away from ad hoc help to more sustained support for individuals that needed it. This more holistic approach greatly increases the chances of an older person overcoming financial hardship for good, as opposed to short-term relief. An employee of Stockton & District Advice and Information Service explained: “The funding has allowed us to dedicate resources towards vulnerable older people who would not usually access our service. It has allowed us to provide more home visits to a population with health issues which prevents them from leaving the home to access advice.”
Organisations supporting older people have a unique challenge in promoting their services to those they’re trying to reach. A significant proportion of older people are not online and many more are not confident on digital devices. Several recipients of the Cost-of-Living Fund put money towards more analogue advertising techniques using paper and word of mouth. Stockton & District Advice and Information Service used the money this way: “We have been able to work with other local statutory and charitable organisations to promote benefit take-up of Pension Credit and Attendance Allowance – promoting our services more widely to a demographic of people who have less access to online advice regarding benefits.”
For the Bolton Solidarity Community Association, improving access also meant extending their support to older people whose first language is not English: “We have increased our language base and the ability to work with communities we had little or no engagement with before due to the language barrier. The budget towards translation helped us greatly with this.”
The future
The final programme ended in March 2025, and though the Cost-of-Living Fund has come to an end, Independent Age’s grants work continues. In 2024 the charity launched two new funds: the Older People’s Fund and Boosting Advice Fund. Combined they will distribute £5.2 million over a three-year period to organisations providing advice services to older people and also to those supporting women from racially minoritised groups across the UK. This year, a second round of the Boosting Advice Fund has already been announced, with more set to follow.
Hannah Lison, Head of Grants at Independent Age said:
“The outcomes of the Cost-of-Living Fund shows the incredible impact local organisations have. With £3 million, these organisations helped more than 50,000 older people and unlocked nearly ten times that amount in benefits. But with so many more older people in need of support, our grants work is just beginning. Our new funds aim to improve on our previous work. By providing larger grants over a three-year period, we want to provide more stability for our grant partners which will allow them to reach more people facing poverty in later life. The organisations we work with are doing amazing work and we look forward to working with many more in the coming years.”