Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, Secretary of State for International Development has written to organisations delivering aid on behalf of the department to tell them that they could be paid in advance in order to meet ongoing costs.

In the letter, sent earlier this week, Ms Trevelyan also says that payments would continue in order to support “essential aid programmes. In the note, the minister says:

The government has published further information on how its £750 million package of support will be divided amongst the charity sector.

The funding was announced last month and includes and allocation of £360 million that will be distributed to charities directly by government departments.

A further £370 million will be distributed to small charities and in England this will be managed by the National Lottery Community Fund.

Charity Tax Group (CTG) has led a group of VCSE sector organisations in calling on the government to divert surplus council coronavirus funding to small charities, reports Civil Society.

Registered charities are now exempt from the rule which stipulates that half of their income comes from trading in order to be eligible for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Scheme.

The British Business Bank, which is the body overseeing the scheme, has changed the wording of the scheme’s conditions to say:

There will be several opportunities for VCSE organisations to have their voices heard over their future and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

First, the House of Lords will be debating the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on charities on Thursday 30 April at 11:00 and charities are being encouraged to contact peers in order to raise issues with them.

The government has refused opposition demands for additional funding for charities.

In parliament yesterday, Oliver Dowden MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport was asked by shadow DCMS minister, Jo Stevenson MP to commit further funding for the sector.

He said that the government would “do everything that it can to support charities”, but would not commit to additional funding.

The Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR) has launched its latest briefing paper on the challenges faced by the VCSE during the COVID-19 crisis.

The report, titled ‘Getting Ready for the Fallout’ is the third that the organisation has released since the COVID-19 crisis began.

More than 60 charity leaders have signed an open letter urging the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak to allow furloughed charity workers to volunteer for their own organisation.

Under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), charity workers can volunteer for another organisation but not their own.