Dormant Assets and how they relate to our work

The Dormant Assets Scheme unlocks money from financial products that have been left untouched for years — like old bank accounts, pensions, and insurance policies — and uses it to support good causes across the UK. 

Led by industry and backed by the government, the Scheme’s first priority is to reunite people with their financial assets. Where that’s not possible, the money is put to good use supporting initiatives that tackle pressing issues.

The Scheme redirects the money to social and environmental initiatives that benefit people and communities across the UK. It’s a way of turning forgotten funds into long-term benefit for communities.

A dormant asset is a financial product, such as a bank account, pension, insurance policy, or investment, that hasn’t been touched for a long time — and where the provider can’t reach the customer.

Currently, the Scheme includes assets from the banking, insurance and pensions, investment and wealth management, and securities sectors.

Customers never lose the right to claim their money. If you think you may have a lost account or savings, your first step is to contact the business that held the funds. You can also use tools like MyLostAccount to help trace lost assets.

Dormant assets are first transferred to Reclaim Fund Ltd, which manages the Scheme. It keeps a portion of the funds in case the original owners come forward, and passes the rest to The National Lottery Community Fund.

From there, funds are distributed across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to support a wide range of impactful initiatives.

In England, the government sets the priorities for how funding is used — so far focusing on youth, financial inclusion, and social investment. In 2023, the Government announced their intention to expand the scheme to include community wealth funds, small pots of money that will allow local residents to improve their communities.

The Oversight Trust provides independent governance of the organisations that receive dormant assets funding in England — making sure the money is used effectively, transparently, and for public good.

To date, over £1 billion has been unlocked through the Dormant Assets Scheme — making it one of the most significant sources of social and environmental funding in the UK.

To date, Access been allocated £83 million from the Dormant Assets Scheme. 

To date, we have received:

• £10 million in 2018 to fund a place-based programme working across six areas. Local Access is a joint funding programme, established by Access and Better Society Capital, that aims to support the development of stronger, more resilient and sustainable social economies in six places across the country. The £10m is blended with £15-20m of debt from Better Society Capital and an aligned commitment of £8m from Access’s endowment to support social change in specific places.
• £30 million in 2020 to support COVID19 recovery. This included supporting charities and social enterprises to mitigate and recover the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. £6 million was distributed in the early phases of the pandemic to 70 charities and social enterprises in grants through our Emergency Lending programme, unlocking wider investments of £21 million. A £22 million blended finance programme was also launched in 2020. Flexible Finance for the Recovery is aimed at creating more sources of patient and flexible repayable finance for charities and social enterprises during the recovery phase of the pandemic.
• £20 million in 2022 to extend support for charities and social enterprises in England through Blended Finance. Through our Enterprise Growth for Communities programme the finance offered will principally be in the form of small flexible unsecured loans to organisations seeking to use the funds to create more social impact. This enables us to reach harities and social enterprises looking to grow or diversify their business models, particularly those unlikely to have taken on social investment before such as smaller organisations or those based in deprived areas. This builds on the work done as part of the Growth Fund (also backed by Dormant Assets via Better Society Capital). The Growth Fund was a partnership between The National Lottery Community Fund and Better Society Capital, delivered by Access through a range of social investors.  
• £23 million in 2023 to support social investment in addressing the cost-of-living crisis and promoting energy resilience. Launched in 2023, the Cost-of-Living programme targets areas most affected by the cost-of-living crisis and long-term economic decline. The Energy Efficiency Social Investment Programme (EESIP) aims to support charities and social enterprises looking to reduce energy costs, improve efficiency, and support a just transition towards a greener future. 

Until the end of 2024, Access had been allocated £83 million from the Dormant Assets Scheme.* 

Committed investment: We have committed £80 million across 7 blended finance programmes.  

Deployment: Half of the total investment across these programmes has been deployed, with the remainder planned for deployment by 2030. 

Leverage: By the end of September 2024, this unlocked £120 million of co-investment (this amount will increase as more funds are deployed). 

1200 plus organisations: By September 2024, 1471 investments have supported 1223 grassroots charities and social enterprises (again, this number will also increase as deployment continues). 

Focus on deprivation: A quarter (24%) of all investment delivered to charities and social enterprises has gone to the 10% most deprived regions (as measured by the indices of deprivation). 

Locally-led: We partner with local and specialist organisations, as decisions are best made by those close to and trusted by communities. Across the 7 programmes, we have worked with 76 different organisations, forming 58 partnerships.

More here on the impact of Dormant Assets spend via Access.