Budget 2021: Charities are still NeverMoreNeeded but where is the support from government?

Following yesterday’s budget announcement, I can’t help but feel disappointed that support for charities has not materialised despite the Never More Needed campaign. #NeverMoreNeeded is backed by organisations across the country including national bodies like NAVCA, Charity Finance Group and ACEVO. It celebrates the incredible work of charities who have been a lifeline to communities throughout the pandemic and yet have often received little or no support from the government COVID-19 relief packages. The budget allocates an additional £65 billion for COVID-19 support but scarcely any of it is for charities, many of which are already disadvantaged due to not being able to access business support grants and the furlough scheme.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), alongside many organisations, have been campaigning to #KeepTheLifeline – urging the government to keep the £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit. Yesterday’s announcement that the uplift and Furlough (Job Retention Scheme) have been extended until September will come as a huge relief to families and people who are struggling to make ends meet. The worry now is what happens after September? JRF said that ‘any extension of less than a year will fail to respond to the economic reality’. A recent poll by the Health Foundation suggests that the majority of the public support making Universal Credit uplift permanent.

There is positive news for the arts and culture sector, with an additional £400 million to help museums, theatres and art galleries. Domestic violence support also receives £19 million and there is a further £10 million for veteran’s mental health charities and £25 million for grassroots football.

The Locality campaign on community ownership seems to have partly paid off with a £150 million community ownership scheme, the details of which are yet to be released. Restart grants for businesses reopening in April also look positive, especially for charities who work as part of the leisure industry, but there is no detail yet on whether this will be accessible for other types of charities and social enterprises.

Perhaps most surprising was that local public sector organisations including the NHS and education were scarcely mentioned. There’s nothing beyond the standard allocations despite these services being at the frontline of COVID-19 response. This budget seems to do little to address the crisis faced by public sector services that are struggling to make their resources stretch to meet unprecedented demand, and continued austerity, which the government has claimed is over.

We have lots of evidence to show the huge financial impact that COVID-19 has had on the charity sector, with estimates of a loss in income of £4.3 billion in the first 12 weeks of the pandemic alone. We have had a lot of recognition from the government in the last year of the importance of the work we are doing to support the most vulnerable people in our communities. Unfortunately, this has not translated into financial support and recognition, despite the best efforts of our national membership bodies. It’s a message that has been echoed across our sector with charity leaders describing it as ‘a missed opportunity’ and ‘feeling taken for granted’.