Big Lottery Fund

Summary of the programme

Improving Financial Confidence (IFC) is aimed at helping people become more confident in and more aware of how to take control of their finances. Many people are unable to access or use basic financial services and products such as a bank account, credit card or affordable loan. (This is often referred to as financial exclusion.) This can make it difficult for people to manage their money, cope with financial pressures and plan for the future. It can also mean that everyday things such as household bills become more expensive.

Improving Financial Confidence aims to help people overcome these issues by increasing their financial capability. Financial capability means the confidence and skills needed to choose, access and use financial products and services suitable to an individual’s needs.

Improving Financial Confidence has limited funds available – up to £30 million in total. For our funding to make the biggest difference we will focus on areas of greatest need. To do this we will target social housing residents, as they are among the most likely to be financially excluded.

To make the most of the funds available, Improving Financial Confidence is targeted at certain groups of social housing residents, who live in target local authority areas. Check the Target Groups and Target Areas sections to see if your project meets these requirements.

Resources

In Improving Financial Confidence, as well as helping individuals we also want to make sure that learning and information is shared as widely as possible. This will help all projects, as well as organisations outside our investment, to benefit from it.

The information on this page may help you as you develop and deliver your project.

Please note: BIG has no responsibility for the content of external information and sources.

You can also read some research from some of the organisations who helped us design this programme:

The National Housing Federation led a Consortium of partners to carry out some initial scoping for our programme. You can read their evidence and rationale here 
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The Money Advice Service has worked closely with us throughout the programme development. Read about their Financial Health Check

Does Debt Advice Pay?

A Business case for social landlords” is a new piece of research from The Financial Inclusion Centre, looking at the practical benefits of debt advice work (as opposed to the preventative action required in IFC)

Does debt advice pay: A buiness case for social landlords - report 
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Does debt advice pay: A buiness case for social landlords - summary 
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“Early findings on tenant engagement” is a briefing from the Citizens Advice Bureau. This is based on early findings from a project to improve financial capability among social tenants, currently being evaluated by the Personal Financial Research Centre at the University of Bristol.

Santander Social Housing - Engaging tenants in financial capability trainging 
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Contact:

Phone: 0845 4 10 20 30

Textphone: 0845 6 02 16 59

Email: general.enquiries@biglotteryfund.org.uk