Government releases £150m from dormant assets to support charity coronavirus response
Melanie May | 21 May 2020 | News
The Government is unlocking £150 million from dormant bank and building society accounts to support those impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
This includes accelerating the release of £71 million of new funds from dormant accounts alongside £79 million already unlocked that will be repurposed to help charities’ coronavirus response and recovery.
The funding will support work to tackle youth unemployment, expand access to emergency loans for civil society organisations and help provide fair, affordable credit to people in vulnerable circumstances.
Of the £150 million:
- £10 million will be brought forward for the Youth Futures Foundation to help organisations supporting unemployed, disadvantaged young people across the country into jobs. The Foundation will be launching an Emergency Levelling Up Youth Fund to support young people from hardest hit communities and will expand its Development and Impact grants programme to increase youth employment provisions.
- £45 million will be deployed by Big Society Capital to help provide better access to investment including emergency loans for charities, social enterprises and some small businesses impacted by the coronavirus outbreak.
- Fair4All Finance will use £65 million to support affordable credit providers to increase access to fair, appropriate products and services for those struggling financially.
- £30 million will go to Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, which will support social enterprises helping people in vulnerable circumstances. Up to £10 million will be available for emergency support through social lenders and a wider programme of recovery finance will be developed for the social sector.
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen, said:
“This funding will provide vital support to some of the most vulnerable in our society. Thank you to the banks and building societies for taking part so we can continue to support so many good causes. I look forward to the potentially millions more we can unlock for good causes through expanding the Dormant Assets Scheme.”
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The Government is currently consulting on expanding the dormant assets scheme to include a range of financial assets from the insurance and pensions, investment and wealth management, and securities sectors.
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.