Unite petitions Chancellor over cuts to charity income
Howard Lake | 22 March 2011 | News
With 24 hours to go until the government announces its Budget, Unite, the largest union in the country, has presented a petition to the Treasury asking Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to release “the financial thumb screws” on the UK’s not-for-profit sector.
The petition has been signed by more than 1,000 Unite professionals working in the sector, and the presentation to the Treasury includes case studies showing the weakened financial state of many charities.
Unite National Officer, Rachael Maskell said: “There is an estimated £4.5 billion funding gap for the voluntary sector due to the coalition’s austerity programme. The coalition has taken £5 billion out the not-for-profit sector in terms of funding, but only put back about £500 million in the way of transitional funding and the so-called Big Society Bank.
“The financial thumbs screws on the sector are very painful and are resulting in a severe reduction to services to the disadvantaged, the elderly and the very young, as well as job losses among voluntary sector professionals who provide these very services. It is time for the thumb screws to be eased dramatically.”
Unite, which has 1.5 million members, has already urged George Osborne to impose a 1p in the pound income tax rise on those earning over £100,000 to help close the voluntary sector funding gap.
www.unitetheunion.org
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.