A £1.8m fund has been launched to help charities improve their ability to influence national policy makers on issues that support vulnerable people’s access to help with their housing and benefits.

This includes influencing policy to help boost support for those seeing asylum in the UK.

The programme will offer grants of between £30,000 and £150,000 for up to three years to improve lobbying around three key issues, according to grant maker Lloyds Bank Foundation, which has launched the fund.

The three key issues the funder is looking to improve lobbying in are:

•Improvements to the benefits systems for people facing “the most significant challenges”.
•Boosting access to suitable accommodation for people facing complex issues.
•Gaining better support for services for asylum seekers and refugees.

The funder is particularly keen to hear from lobbying projects that are being developed with people with first hand knowledge of the issues “through lived or learned experience and that address inequalities”, for example based on race and disability.

Funding will support activities such as research, policy work, campaigning, and communications activity. Applications close on 19 May at 5pm.

“People, communities, and charities are facing huge challenges, compounded by the cost of living crisis,” said Foundation chief executive Paul Streets.

“It's getting harder for people, who already face disadvantage, to survive, find accommodation, and get the help they need. We need to fix the systems perpetuating those challenges. We can only do this by influencing national policy, particularly at this crucial time in the run up to the next general election.

“This funding will equip charities to advocate for change, particularly those developed by people directly affected by these issues, and we encourage them to look at our criteria and apply.”

📢New National Influencing Programme! Charities & CICs with an income over £25,000 seeking to influence those in power to tackle the causes and consequences of complex issues and the barriers people face can apply for £30,000 - £150,000 over three years https://t.co/sEl20mx0ec

— Lloyds Bank Foundation (@LBFEW) March 16, 2023

Lobbying work Lloyds Bank Foundation has previously supported includes campaigning by the Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS).

The Service’s director Gisela Valle its grant from the Foundation was used to hire its first policy role and collect evidence “that two thirds of abuse survivors with insecure immigration status felt the police wouldn't believe them because of their legal status, and more than half were threatened with deportation by their attackers if they went to the police”.

She added: “Our campaigning, evidence and persistence paid off. We improved migrant women's protections – the National Police Chiefs Council created a policy to protect migrant women reporting to police. In 2022, the Justice Committee called for a firewall between reporting abuse and immigration control in the Victims' Bill, and the London Mayor's Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy 2022–25 commits to lobbying for this firewall.”

The Fund has been launched as charity campaigners revealed concerns around policy makers hostility to their campaigning.

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