A social enterprise that supports people to access the welfare support system has received social investment of £40,000 and a grant of £10,000 as part of the Enterprising Communities Fund.
PIP Professional Support C.I.C (PIPPS) is a certified social enterprise and registered C.I.C, not for profit organisation, offering affordable online assistance with a range of welfare support such as Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Universal Credit (UC) claims. As a social enterprise, they commit the majority of their profits into offering free advice and support to those who need it most.
The investment will be used to expand their services, train staff and purchase new equipment. They plan to launch a telephone service so that clients unable to meet in person can access support. Cat Gillett, Chief Executive Director and Founder, said:
“As an organisation that has grown from one lawyer – working from a spare bedroom, to having 3 offices and employing well over 20 staff throughout the UK, for our mission to be believed in by GMCVO is simply incredible."
"The funding that we have received will enable us to offer support on a wider range of benefits – which means that we can support disabled people with their benefits claims from cradle to end of life. "
"As a not-for-profit agency, expansion has always been difficult because it’s extremely important to us to keep the fees that our service users pay are kept as low as possible to simply cover our costs and to keep our national free advice service running.”
Manchester Credit Union have supplied the loan element, whilst Access – the Foundation for Social Investment supplied the grant. Mandy Wilcock, Chief Executive of Manchester Credit Union, said:
"We are delighted and proud to provide PIPPS with a credit union loan and continue our work with GMCVO and other funders."
"Our members are local people its the savings savings they have built up over the years that have made it possible to lend to PIPPS and help them continue their great work helping people in our community."
"This fulfils one of our social goals which is to contribute to the economic regeneration of our communities."
"Using the community wealth created by our members to enable local social enterprises to improve the lives of others is something that fits well with the not-for-profit, co-operative and ethical principles of Credit Unions. We hope that our Credit Union and others in Greater Manchester can provide more of these loans to help the local VCSE sector continue to thrive.”
The investment has been made as part of the Enterprising Communities Fund, a unique partnership between GMCVO, The Greater Manchester Credit Union Consortium, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Access – The Foundation for Social Investment and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
Find out more about social investment and other funds we have available here.
