MPs call for emergency charities hardship fund
Hundreds of small charities may go to the wall during the coronavirus crisis due to funding shortages, MPs from across the political spectrum have warned.
Senior politicians, including Shropshire North MP Owen Paterson, say community groups have stepped into the breach during the outbreak by delivering food and medicines to the most vulnerable and by taking pressure off the NHS and care homes through their work with the terminally ill.
But they warned that many charities will not survive the lockdown as they are unable to raise funds through the usual avenues such as high street charity shops.
A total of 26 MPs have written to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor calling on them to set up an "emergency hardship fund to help this silent army of lifesavers".
The letter says: "We have seen first-hand their significance in the fight against coronavirus.
"They provide the infrastructure of voluntary effort to support the most vulnerable, facing greater hardship than ever at this time.
"Isolated households, those with mental health problems, people experiencing domestic violence, child abuse, loneliness and the extra stress of family dysfunction.
"They are delivering medicines and food to the most vulnerable and in the case of adult and children’s hospices, they are also taking the pressure off our hard-pressed NHS and social care sectors or stemming the flow of people who would otherwise need more intense medical care in hospitals and much, much more."
It adds that some of the bigger charities may be able to ride out the pandemic, but many smaller ones have no cash reserves to rely on.
Signatories include former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and former Labour deputy leader Dame Margaret Beckett.
