Lots of interest in lived experience - but no money to pay for it.

Please excuse if this sounds a wee bit like a rant but I wonder if others are sharing my frustration. 
There is a lot of interest at the moment around using lived experience to inform services etc which is absolutely fantastic.  I have received many many requests over the last few years.  This is 100% a move forward in the right direction.
However - it seems that in most cases there is "no budget" to pay for it.  HHHMMMMM

I have worked in the NHS and I now work in the voluntary sector - I know money is tight.  But if the big organisations and the LA's and NHS think they have it hard - try being a small voluntary organisation, 
Try working 40+ hours per week and getting paid part-time.  Try running a project on a shoe string budget but trying to make it the best it can be to prove its value and worth to  said LA's & NHS in the hope of a flake of dandruff from their budget in order to sustain your project.  Try telling people that their experiences are valued and important - but then tell them they are not valuable enough to be paid for.
This really isn't meant to be a rant - but its a realistic view of what I have seen happening over the last 2 years. 
I am living in hope that with the integration of H&S Care and the strong focus on peer support and self-management within the MH Strategy - that we may start to see a shift not only in the talk - but in the walk.  Lets see some real shift of budgets to enable people with lived experience and their inputs into projects and services be valued.
In the meantime, yes we will do it free of charge.  We will fuel it as usual with the passion and determination that keeps us doing all of the above.  Because if we don't nothing will change.  I wonder....are we doing the right thing??