PN 04-03-16 CF

26 March 2004

Success for Salford with over £500,000 in Lottery grants

Salford Citizens Advice Bureau will be reaching out to older members of the community in Salford thanks to a £271,306 Lottery grant from the Community Fund.

After carrying out research Salford CAB have found that a large number of older people in the area are not claiming their entitlement to a benefit known as attendance allowance, which enables people over 65 years of age who have care needs to purchase their own care and support.

‘Attendance allowance can make a huge difference to the lives of older people.’ said Tom Tougher, Chief Officer of Salford CAB. ‘With this additional care, people are much more able to lead full and independent lives for much longer’

The group will offer a service that identifies those people who could take advantage of extra care and provide a free benefit check in their homes. The advice worker will also ensure that those who qualify for the entitlement receive support to complete the necessary forms and will also liase with other professionals such as doctors, health visitors and social workers to obtain all the required evidence.

Once an award is made they will offer further advice in relation to other passport benefits.

Salford Unemployed and Community Centre were also winners of a £243,206 Community Fund grant to continue giving advice, advocacy and representation on welfare benefits and employment rights. It will also offer debt counselling to assist 100 families in the area and initiate a campaign to secure Bereavement Benefit for over 2,000 male widowers in the Salford area.

Notes to Editors

The Community Fund shares out money raised by the National Lottery to charities and to voluntary and community groups. Out of every £1 spent on the National Lottery the Community Fund gets 4.7 pence.
The legal name of the Community Fund remains the National Lottery Charities Board. The National Lottery Charities Board was set up in 1994 and changed its operation name to Community Fund – Lottery money making a difference in April 2001.
Since 1995 the Community Fund has awarded £2.1 billion to more than 46,000 projects. Full details are available in the grants database
Next year the Community Fund is to merge with the New Opportunities Fund in advance of creating a new National Lottery distributor that will administer 50 per cent of all good cause funding. The merger will not affect current programmes, beneficiaries or applications. Further details on the new lottery distributor are expected to be available in Spring 2004.
The New Opportunities Fund distributes National Lottery money to health, education and environment projects across the UK. We intend to support sustainable projects that will improve the quality of life of people throughout the UK, address the needs of those who are most disadvantaged in society, encourage community participation and complement relevant local and national strategies and programmes. (Funding for programmes is divided between England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales on the basis of population weighted to reflect levels of deprivation).

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Claire Slinger, Communications Officer -
01925 626808

Angela Burrows, Regional Development Officer - 01925 626833

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