Charities: Coronavirus

(asked on 20th April 2020) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his Department's news story, Chancellor sets out extra £750 million coronavirus funding for frontline charities, published on 8 April 2020, how children's cancer charities such as CLIC Sargent will be able to access that funding.


Answered by
Kemi Badenoch Portrait
Kemi Badenoch
President of the Board of Trade
This question was answered on 27th April 2020

The package of support announced by the Chancellor on 8 April will enable charitable organisations to continue providing essential services to those most in need.

  • £360m will be allocated by central government to charities based on evidence of service need. This will include up to £200m support for hospices, with the rest going to organisations like St Johns’ Ambulance and the Citizens Advice Bureau as well as charities supporting vulnerable children, victims of domestic abuse, or disabled people.

  • £370m will support smaller, local charities working with vulnerable people. In England, this support will be provided through organisations like the National Lottery Community Fund. We will allocate £60m of this funding through the Barnett formula so the devolved administrations are funded to provide similar support in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Funding for charities will be made available in the coming weeks and further information will be announced on Gov.uk. The Government’s aim is to get funding to those in greatest need as soon as possible.

Many charities and social enterprises will also benefit from the existing measures announced to support employers and businesses. Under these measures, like other businesses, charities can defer their VAT bills and pay no business rates for their shops next year. All charities are eligible for the job retention scheme and the right answer for many charities will be to furlough their employees with the government paying 80% of wages.

Reticulating Splines