Scottish Government has launched the Scottish Benefit Take-Up Fund (with awards of up to £50,000 available), and the Scottish Income Maximisation Fund (which has awards of up to £15,000 available).

Scottish Benefit Take-Up Fund:

The Scottish Benefit Take-Up Fund will be open to bids for awards of up to £50,000, and will consider bids from organisations of all sizes to support their clients and service users (including through the development of promotional materials or relevant training, for example).

The fund aims to:

reach people who may not have applied for social security benefits before
have a positive impact on take-up among harder to reach groups
support different groups in overcoming barriers to applying for benefits
promote the take-up of the Scottish Child Payment

£500,000 is available through the fund.

Scottish Income Maximisation Fund:

This £100,000 fund will be available to assist organisations who support people to increase their household incomes, with an emphasis on ensuring people are aware of the financial support available to them.

The fund will be open to bids from eligible organisations for awards of up to £15,000, and aims to:

have a positive impact on groups of people who have not applied for the financial support they are entitled to
reach groups who may be in particular need of support
reach groups that may have particular barriers to overcome in applying for benefits
increase the income of target households

Eligibility Criteria:

Both funds are open to applications from organisations (including registered charities) which:

are established for charitable, benevolent or philanthropic purposes
provides free and impartial advice to Scottish citizens applying for, or seeking to apply for, Scottish social security benefits
do not gain any direct economic advantage from advice provided, for example through provision of further chargeable services

The deadline for applications to both funds is Friday 31^st January 2020.

For further information, including how to apply, please visit the Scottish Government website.