Emergency fund launches to help young women in financial crisis during pandemic
Melanie May | 30 March 2020 | News
The Young Women’s Trust has today launched an emergency fund to help young women struggling financially as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Young Women’s Emergency Fund will provide relief payments of £150 to young women aged 18-30 struggling to afford essentials such as food, utilities and rent for themselves and their families.
The Young Women’s Trust has donated £85,000 of its own money to the fund and is seeking to raise a further £50,000 to help women in England and Wales.
The charity, which evolved from the YWCA England and Wales and was formed more than 150 years ago, has joined forces with Women’s Aid, Women’s Resource Centre and Women for Refugee Women, who will act as referral partners. The partner charities will refer women who are economically vulnerable, experiencing domestic violence and those who are living in insecure housing to the fund.
Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, Young Women’s Trust research found that 40% of young women struggled to make their cash last until the end of the month and 1 in 4 young mothers skipped meals every day. Many fear this will get worse unless the government intervenes further.
The Young Women’s Trust is calling on the government to step up its emergency response to protect young women already affected by the coronavirus crisis. It is asking it to increase basic benefit allowances such as Universal Credit, Carer’s Allowance and Personal Independence Payments to be paid at the National Living Wage, to halt the five-week wait for payments, and to remove barriers to refugee and migrant women accessing healthcare by ending the policy of “no recourse to public funds”.
Launching the Emergency Fund, Sophie Walker, Chief Executive of Young Women’s Trust, said:
“The government has announced emergency measures to support businesses, homeowners and the self-employed. We are very worried that thousands of young women who were left behind before the crisis, have been left behind in the response to it.
“Young women are telling us they’re fearful about how they are going to pay their rent, electricity and gas and even feed their children over the coming weeks. We want to provide immediate relief to help these young women.
“The current climate is causing financial difficulties for many, but we know from the millions who have pledged to help the NHS and their communities during this crisis, that people stand ready to help others in their time of need. We urge them to stand with us as allies to young women who are economically vulnerable at this time.”
More information including how to donate to the emergency fund can be found on the Young Women’s Trust website.
Advertisement
Related posts
Funding to tackle COVID-19 and its impact
COVID-19: Pets at Home and SAFP to donate £700,000 to local pet rescue charities
Coronavirus: charities cannot meet surge in demand without urgent government funding
Sector survey shows further funding challenges on horizon
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.