{"id":5062,"date":"2020-03-24T10:47:38","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T10:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/?p=5062"},"modified":"2020-04-29T10:48:57","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T09:48:57","slug":"how-is-covid-19-affecting-the-charity-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/2020\/03\/24\/how-is-covid-19-affecting-the-charity-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"How is COVID-19 affecting the charity sector?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018The COVID-19 pandemic places an\u00a0<strong>unprecedented challenge<\/strong>\u00a0for the charities who work in the<strong>\u00a0very heart of communities<\/strong>\u00a0across the United Kingdom. They are facing pressures on all fronts. Their beneficiaries\u00a0<strong>need help more than ever<\/strong>, with social distancing and the spread of the virus creating ever greater need. Yet at the same time\u00a0<strong>fundraising has been hit hard<\/strong>\u00a0by the cancellation of a huge range of events, the mothballing of workplaces and the desertion of high streets. More need and less cash presents charities with a hugely challenging situation, to say the least.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Charities will have income in reserves for a rainy day \u2013 and this is the rainiest of days \u2013 but this is\u00a0<strong>unlikely to be sufficient to safeguard the organisation<\/strong>\u00a0and its work even in the medium term. They are therefore crying out for\u00a0<strong>additional government support<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018While Friday\u2019s announcement (19 March 2020) of support for businesses and \u2013 explicitly \u2013 for charities is welcome, it\u00a0<strong>does little to meet the challenges<\/strong>\u00a0faced by charities whose services are more in demand than ever.<\/p>\n<p>As the government guidance explains,\u00a0<em>\u201cEmployers will be able to contact HMRC for a grant to cover most of the wages of their workforce who remain on payroll but are temporarily not working during the COVID-19\u00a0outbreak. Any employer in the country \u2013 small or large, charitable or non-profit will be eligible for the scheme.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0The key phase here is \u201c<em>temporarily not working<\/em>\u201d. Charities do not need support to pay staff who are not working,\u00a0<strong>they need support to pay staff who are working<\/strong>\u00a0harder than ever. The government have emphasised that this scheme is flexible \u2013\u00a0<strong>charities need to see this flexibility extend<\/strong>\u00a0to paying charity staff for the vital work they are doing, not just the work they aren\u2019t doing.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/social-policy-sociology-social-research\/people\/1581\/hogg-eddy\">Dr Eddy Hogg<\/a>\u00a0is a Lecturer in Social Policy and Director of Studies for Social Policy and Health and Social Care.\u00a0His research looks at volunteering, charitable giving and public attitudes to the voluntary sector. His research interests include volunteering across the lifecourse, on volunteering and charitable giving for public services, on youth volunteering, on the value of charity involvement in supporting young people, on attitudes towards charity regulation in England and Wales and, on charity engagement with the Fundraising Regulator.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>The University\u2019s Press Office provides the media with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/news\/tags\/comment\/\">expert comments<\/a>\u00a0in response to topical news events. Colleagues who would like to learn more about how to contribute their expertise or how the service works should contact the Press Office on 3985 or\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:pressoffice@kent.ac.uk\">pressoffice@kent.ac.uk<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018The COVID-19 pandemic places an\u00a0unprecedented challenge\u00a0for the charities who work in the\u00a0very heart of communities\u00a0across the United Kingdom. They are facing pressures on all fronts. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/2020\/03\/24\/how-is-covid-19-affecting-the-charity-sector\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59459,"featured_media":5063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5062"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5062"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5064,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5062\/revisions\/5064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}