The Attorney General plans to make a reference to the charity tribunal to determine whether all benevolent funds satisfy the public benefit test.

However, the clarification is not sought with regard to every type of benevolent fund, only to those whose beneficiaries are defined narrowly by membership of a certain family or by having been employed by an individual company or by membership of an organisation. An example would be a charity established to relieve need among descendents of a certain individual or a charity to relieve poverty among the members of an operatic society.

Benevolent funds whose beneficiaries are defined by membership of a certain profession, such as architects or charity employees, would not be covered by this reference. 

Before the Charities Act 2006 was enacted, it was assumed that public benefit did apply to trusts that sought to relieve the poverty of a restricted pool of beneficiaries defined by a relationship to an individual or a company, such as those trusts described above.

But since the Act came in, all trusts now have to prove they are for the public benefit if they are to have charitable status.

The Attorney General, Dominic Grieve QC MP, has decided to seek clarification from the First-Tier Tribunal (Charity) on whether the effect of the case law on this issue has been changed by the Act.

The Charity Commission said it welcomed the reference, as it recognised that the Act may have changed the law so far as these charities are concerned.
 
The Attorney General has the power to make a reference on any matter of charity law in his public interest role as protector of charity.