Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to provide support for charities who are facing ‘imminent collapse’ due to the coronavirus crisis.
Charity sector bosses have predicted £4billion losses as social distancing measures shut charity shops and cancel sponsored events – including the London Marathon – meaning ‘income has literally stopped overnight’, according to sector bosses.
First aid charity St John Ambulance – which is helping the NHS manage the crisis – is on track to go bust in August without help from the government.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to provide support for charities who are facing ‘imminent collapse’ due to the coronavirus crisis
Proposals will likely be ‘regulatory measures that make a difference’ to the sector instead of funding, The Daily Telegraph reports.
The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) chiefs said the impact of coronavirus will be 100 times worse than the 2008 financial crisis.
Relaxing the rules surrounding charities’ ability to claim their employees wages back – while they are not working due to coronavirus – is one option.
The government will cover 80 per cent of the salaries of workers who have been put on furlough, or temporary leave.
Children’s charity Barnado’s has put 2,500 staff on furlough.
The charity’s chief executive Javed Khan said: ‘The Government must act urgently so that charities like ours are here for vulnerable children for as long as they need us.’
NCVO chief Karl Wilding told a Government select committee today: ‘Charities are facing a real crunch, with more pressure on the services they offer at the same time as losing out on fundraising income.
‘This is something that’s affecting all charities, large and small, and they urgently need answers.’
St John Ambulance could go bust in August, its chief executive admitted (stock image)
St John Ambulance Chief Executive Martin Houghton-Brown said the country’s leading first aid charity has funds to last until the summer.
But without Government support would then be forced to resort to borrowing to aid the NHS with a potential second wave.
Mr Wilding called for the Government to urgently establish a stabilisation fund to allow charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises to stay afloat and keep operating during the pandemic as ‘literally every day counts’.
Giving evidence to the committee, Mr Houghton-Brown said: ‘With the NHS money that has been deployed so far we think that we can keep going until August, but I have to say that we’re in the lucky position where we’ve got assets that we could take huge debt finance against.
‘I think we’ve got money until August and in the current situation, to go beyond August would require heavy borrowing.’
Mr Houghton-Brown said: ‘I need about £450,000 a week to be able to continue operating in this crisis in order to able to ensure that I can sustain this effort.
‘My concern is there might be a second peak, that we can’t rule out a second peak, and we need to be as ready and mobilised and equipped for that second peak.’
Oxfam has been forced to shut around 600 UK charity shops, which raised £17.3 million last year, ITV News reports.
Cancer Research UK will see a 25 per cent cut of donations after also closing 600 stores.
Oxfam has been forced to shut around 600 UK charity shops, which raised £17.3 million last year (stock image)
The hit to finances have meant the charity has partially cut funding for research.
Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice – which supports seriously unwell children and their families in north and central London and Hertsmere – faces an income shortfall of more than £2 million this year, more than half its projected income.
Sophie Andrews OBE, chief executive officer of Noah’s Ark, said: ‘We’re concerned about how we’re going to support these children through coronavirus and beyond.
‘Our community has been a bastion of generosity in the past and we’re once again calling on them to rally around for their local children’s hospice.’
Animal charities will also feel the brunt of the crisis.
PDSA spokesperson said the outbreak ‘will have a very significant and long lasting effect on our income, running into many millions of pounds’.
Cancer Research UK will see a 25 per cent cut of donations after also closing 600 stores (stock image)
Nora Smith, chief executive of CO3 which represents Northern Ireland charity bosses, said: ‘Charities exist to protect the most vulnerable people in society, so when we struggle it is harder to help them, and when charities close down those that so desperately need them go without.’
CO3 is one of a group of charitable representative bodies including Social Enterprise NI (SENI), the Rural Community Network (RCN), the Community Foundation for NI and Northern Ireland Environment Link (NIEL) that is calling for Stormont to step in.
Colin Jess at SENI said the Scottish Government had established a £20 million Resilience Fund to help charities.
He added: ‘We need a similar financial support programme for charities and social enterprises.’