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Refugee Council services 'decimated' by cuts 5

Finance | Tania Mason | 27 Jan 2011

The Refugee Council is facing sweeping reductions to its budgets for frontline services as a result of Home Office spending cuts.

Jonathan Ellis, the Refugee Council’s policy chief, said this week that the charity’s services to beneficiaries were being “decimated” by the scale of the reduction in its Home Office settlement for 2011 and beyond.

The charity confirmed that the funding offered by the Home Office from April this year for its frontline ‘One Stop Service’ will be no more than £2.02m, which is 61.7 per cent less than for 2010/11. For its Wraparound Initial Accommodation Services, funding will be no more than £726,000, which is 49.6 per cent lower than for 2010/11. 

The contract for its Refugee Integration and Employment Service (RIES) will also end in September 2011.

Ellis said he couldn’t put a figure on the total amount of cuts expected because the charity was still negotiating with the government over its final settlement.

The charity has already had to cope with cuts of 20 per cent this financial year to its UK Border Agency contracts compared with 2009/10.  It has already made some redundancies and is consulting with staff over the next round.  It employs just under 300 staff nationally.

Heavily reliant on statutory funding

According to the Refugee Council’s 2009/10 accounts, filed with the Charity Commission this week, UK Border Agency contracts accounted for 77 per cent of its £20.1m income last year. Funding from other statutory sources totalled around £1.8m, meaning the charity is dependent upon the government for 86 per cent of its revenue.

The charity stated in its annual report: “2010/11 will be a year of exceptional uncertainty for the Refugee Council.

“Despite the fall in the number of asylum seekers coming to the UK each year, pressure on our services will continue to increase.  The increased demand across all sectors of society for access to social housing and to legal and other advice services will leave our clients with nowhere else to turn, particularly given that many of our member organisations are being hit through cuts to voluntary organisations at a local level.”

It said its greatest priority was to “continue to streamline our organisation so that money is freed up for frontline work”.

Home Office response

The Home Office also refused to disclose details of the extent of the cuts to the charity’s budget.  A spokeswoman said: “The figure requested for 2011/2012 is still subject to negotiation and we will not be able to announce next financial year’s grant funding for some time.”

Immigration minister Damian Green said: “The UK Border Agency is committed to continuing to work with voluntary sector partners. However, in the current financial climate, we all have to look for ways of doing things differently to reduce costs.

“Asylum intake has reduced significantly since grant payment agreements were first put in place. It is only right that funding is reduced accordingly to reflect this.”

The Home Office has issued a comprehensive Q&A regarding the UKBA’s approach to funding voluntary sector agencies, including the Refugee Council.  You can read the Q&A here.

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