Age UK response to Chancellor's announcement of an aid package for charities

Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK said

"Now and every minute of the day charities up and down the country are working their socks off to ensure individuals, families and communities come through this terrible health crisis as well as they humanly can. They are throwing themselves into the fight with little regard for tomorrow, concentrating 110% instead on providing desperately needed help - in some cases they are literally saving lives. We know our local Age UKs are among them, focusing all their energy on giving older people in their areas practical and emotional support they would otherwise completely lack and we are hugely proud of all that they are doing. 

"The Government funding announcement made today needs to be understood against this context of unprecedented and urgent local need. It's right that the first priority should be to enable all these charities and community groups to keep delivering while the virus is such a present threat but, realistically, life is not going to return to normal in most places for years to come, certainly so far as older people are concerned. The huge surge in demand for help from charities is going to be there for the foreseeable future, yet the extra funding announced by the Chancellor today is geared only to providing short term relief. This means it is probably best seen as a down payment for the sustained support the charity sector and the country really needs to avoid waking up in one or two year's time to find many of the country's best loved charities have simply had to fold."