Funded Projects
Work we are funding
We make grants totalling around £2m every year.
A full list of organisations awarded funding is below, click on the organisation name for detailed information on the project.
The Pensions Review
2023 Projects Funded
Income | £79,570 | September 2023 – November 2024
Development of a ‘manifesto for fair pay’ and further analysis of company pay ratios.
Cross-cutting | £113,000 | November 2023 to Spring 2025
Analysis of General Election policy proposals from main political parties
Income | £20,320 | May 2023 to August 2023
Insecurity and financial strain in the middle of the income distribution.
Assets | £30,000| June 2023 – January 2024
A wealth of opportunities: widening access to and the benefits from assets
Assets | £136,500 | November 2023 – March 2025
Developing credible, fair options for taxing inherited wealth in the UK
Income | £129,270 | August 2023 – January 2025
Improving incomes for carers
Income | £99,480| September 2023 – September 2025
Reducing financial disadvantage for low-to-middle income migrant households
Spending | £169,060| July 2023 – December 2024
Aggressive debt collection and mental health
Spending | 48,540 | November 2023 to November 2024
Researching the impact of credit reference agency messaging
Spending | £99,804| August 2023 – July 2024
Access to bike schemes for people on low incomes
Income | £82,820 | November 2023 – November 2024
Safe Sick Pay Campaign
Income | £90,780 | December 2023 – June 2025
Research to develop a living standards action plan
Income | £47,550 | November 2023 – November 2025
Building awareness and support for the implementation of a Minimum Income Guarantee in Scotland
Income | £122,090| July 2023 – January 2025
Increasing the supply of flexible jobs for low and middle income workers
Income | £21,800 | November 2023 – March 2024
Conference and research focused on improving job quality and security
Income | £167,030 | April 2024 – September 2025
Discovering what adults with disabilities consider to be an acceptable application process for social security benefits
2022 Projects Funded
Spending | £160,170 | January 2023 – June 2025
Fines for low-level offences: the impacts for people on low incomes
Income | £83,650 | January 2023 – December 2024
Enabling active and inclusive public debate of UK fiscal policy with an open-source tax-benefit model
Income | £98,800 | December 2022 – May 2024
Universal Credit: how to improve the system for people migrating from legacy benefits
Income | £257,000 | January 2023 – December 2025
Living Pensions
Spending | £150,000 | January 2023 – December 2025
Funeral poverty
Assets | £334,000 | April 2023 – March 2027
Wealth in Britain
Income | £85,200 | April 2023 – March 2025
Criminal records disclosure; improving the system
Spending | £63,000 | October 2022 – October 2024
Improving concessionary transport schemes for disabled people
Spending | £17,000 | September 2022 - November 2022
How to make childcare more affordable and flexible
Spending | £84,300 | July 2022 – June 2024
Improving financial services for victim survivors of economic abuse
Spending | £60,590 | September 2022 – August 2023
An online guide to tackling poverty locally in Scotland
Income | £188,000 | June 2022 – December 2024
An independent commission on employment support
Spending | £37,600 | August 2022 – January 2023
Cost of living for those on low incomes
Income | £70,000 | July 2022 – December 2023
Improving maternity and paternity benefits
Spending | £11,790 | July 2022 – November 2022
Cost of living for women in Scotland
Spending | £198,000 | July 2022 - July 2024
Making Britain’s housing stock more energy efficient
Cross-cutting | £45,263 | July 2022 to July 2023
Financial wellbeing for disabled people
2021 Projects Funded
Spending | £60,139 | August 2021 – July 2022
Research into homeless young people’s experiences of food insecurity and development of evidence-based policy solutions.
Spending | £59,845 | January 2022 – April 2023
Research to explore young people’s (aged 18-24) lived experience of borrowing, their use of credit and perceptions of their current (and future) financial vulnerability.
Assets | £108,772 | January 2022 – July 2023
Research to gain greater understanding of public attitudes to inheritance, and build a coalition for reform.
Income | £90,500 | September 2021 – August 2022
To develop and secure support for UK-wide and Scotland-only improvements to income replacement policies, using learning from the pandemic.
Income | £99,371 | August 2021 – December 2022
Research, policy work and resources to mitigate the financial impacts for prisoners families in Scotland.
Income | £74,786 | August 2021 – September 2022
Research to understand the impact of job-loss on single parents and examine ways to help them back into sustainable employment.
Income | £80,000 | Summer 2021 – Summer 2022
Research on pay ratio disclosures detailing pay distribution at major UK employers; and reviewing stakeholder voice mechanisms in corporate governance structures.
Assets| £162,000 | July 2021 to December 2022
Research and policy work on reforming pensions taxation.
Spending | £104,493 | June 2021 to July 2022
Research to better understand the challenges people with dementia face as consumers and identify policy, practice and product solutions.
Income | £174,300 | March 2022 – March 2024
Policy, research and advocacy work to realise a Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG), fair work recovery and Universal Basic Services approach that tackles financial insecurity in Scotland.
Assets | £86,233 | June 2021 to March 2022
Research to explore opportunities for voluntary increases in employer contributions to pensions and other financial workplace benefits.
Income | £31,250 | June 2021 to September 2021
Design an extension to furlough, with a focus on improving skills which address the challenges of levelling up and net zero.
Income | £76,973 | January 2022 – July 2023
Collaborative research to examine the unique financial hardships of separated/single parents in Northern Ireland.
Spending | £139,516 | December 2021 – May 2023
Research into the key issues that adults from some minority ethnic groups face at key transition points in accessing advice, and secure, affordable and suitable housing. Shelter Scotland will co-produce recommendations with those with lived experience to influence decision makers to make positive change.
Income | £124,108 | January 2022 – July 2023
Research to explore how Universal Credit’s systems for assessing entitlement, recovering debt and calculating payment, affect income security and financial well-being among working claimants.
Income | £123,000 | January 2022 – December 2024
Research to inform efforts to improve public support available to migrants with no recourse to public funds who are at risk of poverty and destitution.
Assets | £112,109 | April 2022 - July 2023
Research to gather data on the number of empty homes in certain areas of the UK, combined with work in four localities to help us learn how to address problems arising from this.
Spending | £90,830 | April 2022 – October 2023
Research to identify ways to improve communication between households in housing debt and their housing provider, thereby reducing the likelihood of court proceedings and eviction.
Income | £73,708 | July 2021 to December 2021
Modelling work to develop an evidence base to inform the next Scottish Government’s child poverty delivery plan.
Income | £38,950 | January 2022 – June 2022
The Renewing Work Advisory Group of Experts (ReWAGE) provides strategic expert-based advice and guidance to help government across the UK deliver good jobs with financial security post-Covid. This project will enable ReWAGE to provide a series of evidence papers and policy briefs to government.
Income | £143,800 | January – December 2022
Changing Realities aims to create social policy change by enhancing and facilitating the engagement and influence of people with direct experience of hardship and social security in policy and parliamentary processes and in public and media debates on poverty.
2020 Projects Funded
Income | £67,982 | April 2021 – March 2022
Research and policy work to address the problem of low-income and self-employment in Wales.
Income | £74,960 | January – December 2021
A comprehensive assessment of work incentives in the UK’s tax and benefit system.
Income | £96,198 | January 2021 – March 2022
An analysis of the distributional consequences of a progressive consumption tax compared with current income tax and VAT arrangements.
Assets | £135,000 | February 2021 – August 2022
Developing an employer-facing ‘Living Pension’ programme to increase the retirement savings of those in lower paid roles.
Assets| £158,975 | December 2020 – November 2021
Examining the impact of economic disruption and income volatility on saving for retirement.
Assets | £104,818 | March 2021 – February 2022
Research examining whether affordable homeownership schemes are more sustainable for lower-income homeowners than buying unassisted on the open market.
Income | £52,300 | May-August 2020
Employment and financial impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on low-income working households.
Income | £90,000 | May-August 2020
Real-time monitoring of personal finances through the coronavirus pandemic.
Income | £21,000 | May-June 2020
Assessment of Universal Credit and the coronavirus pandemic.
Income | £49,000 | May-October 2020
Greater understanding of the economic security gap for key-workers during the pandemic.
Income | £37,000 | May-October 2020
Rapid analysis of immediate economic safety needs and future resilience of victim-survivors of economic abuse in the context of coronavirus.
Income | £76,000 | August 2020 – July 2021
Coronavirus pandemic: Social and economic impact on women
Spending (Problem Gambling) | £125,000 | October 2020 – October 2022
Betting in the UK: How to tackle problem gambling
Spending | £133,000 | May 2020 – May 2022
Emergency support in the social security system
Income | £48,621 | June 2020 – December 2020
Single parents: Tracking the effects of the coronavirus pandemic
Spending | £180,000 | August 2020 – July 2023
Debt: Supporting people with experience of debt problems to influence policy
Income | £70,000 | June 2020 – May 2023
Social security: reviewing the decision-making system
2019 Projects Funded
Income | £150,000 | June 2019 - December 2021
Rethinking Scotland’s social security system
Income | £104,000 | Feb 2020 – Apr 2021
Financial well-being: Adult children living at home
Income | £70,000 | July 2019 – December 2020
Financial hardship in rural areas
Spending | £75,000 | July 2019 – June 2022
Poverty in Scotland: Engaging people with lived experience
Assets | £190,000 | October 2019 – October 2022
Wealth in Britain
Income | £77,000 | February 2021 – February 2022
New pension rules, choices people make
Income | £109,460 | November 2019 - October 2020
Public attitudes on taxation
Income | £74,000 | November 2019 – January 2021
Social security: understanding public attitudes
Income | £68,000 | November 2019 – November 2020
In-work poverty: the role of working hours
Income | £62,000 | November 2019 – February 2021
High pay: analysis of pay ratios in the UK
Income | £37,000 | November 2019 – November 2020
Universal Credit: Reducing economic abuse
