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Spotlight on Dormant Assets

The Dormant Assets Scheme puts forgotten money to better use, rather than letting it gather dust in inactive accounts. 

Uniquely, the Scheme provides long-term, flexible funding that enables expert organisations to focus on creating positive and lasting change.

The scheme has enabled thousands of charities and social enterprises to access the appropriate forms of finance they need to thrive. From 2019 until the end of 2024: 

  • Deployment and leverage: Access has committed £83 million from the Dormant Assets Scheme into funds and programmes that support charities and frontline social enterprises. This has leveraged investment from both the private and philanthropic sectors – delivering at least an additional £140 million for charities and social enterprises (approximately £1.37 for every £1 spent).
  • 1200 plus organisations: 1285 organisations reached, delivering £26.6m in grant
  • Focus on deprivation: much of this is heavily targeted at more deprived areas of the country – with over two-thirds of Dormant Assets investment going to organisations in the more deprived areas (IMD 1-4) and the North West being the region that has received the most (both by grant deployed and total investment). 

Dormant Assets in action

 

New Meaning are an alternative training and education provider working with young people to develop the skills and confidence they need to earn their own living. 

Jess Tyrrell, Area Manager said: “Without social investment, backed by the Dormant Assets Scheme, our Berkshire centre wouldn’t be here – it’s meant that we can expand our work supporting young people to develop their confidence and skills and move towards meaningful employment. We’ve been able to take on more staff and invest in the tools and equipment we need to help young people to make progress with their learning, become work-ready and feel inspired about their future."

 

 

 

TellJO use technology to tackle the root causes of debt and prevents crisis situations such as arrears and homelessness. They work with Councils to provide digital wellbeing assessments to their residents via the resident’s smartphones. A missed Council Tax payment triggers a message from TellJO asking ‘Are you ok?’ – the conversation that follows covers around 90 questions and 63 indicators of vulnerability. 

Over three quarters of residents who talk to TellJO ask to pay their Council Tax arrears via a payment arrangement and half receive debt advice immediately. TellJO received £150k in the form of a patient and flexible revenue share agreement from Sumerian, backed by the Dormant Asset Scheme, to enable them to scale up and provide early intervention support to the growing numbers of people who are missing payments in part due to the worsening cost of living crisis.

Dominic Maxwell, Co-founder and Director, said: “Given the growing pressure on household budgets, we know that when people get into debt it can cause crisis situations like suicidal thoughts and homelessness – providing support and advice before this happens is absolutely crucial. We have a model that works – and social investment, backed by the Dormant Assets Scheme, will help us respond to the huge demand we’re facing – helping us and the councils we work with to provide more support to people struggling to pay their bills.” 

 

 

 

Doncaster Refurnish is a furniture recycling and training social enterprise. Established over 20 years ago, they are based in ex-mining communities, many of which are ranked in the top 10% most deprived in the country. It collects unwanted furniture from households and also receive damaged stock from retailers. They repair and renew this furniture and then sell to people in need at very low prices. They are a repeat investee of Key Fund, a leading investor in social and community enterprise who work across the North and the Midlands, having been supported many times since inception. In December 2022 an offer was made of £15,600 to enable them to install LED lighting, which will dramatically reduce their energy bills.

Andy Simpson, CEO of Doncaster Refurnish said: “With several buildings to manage, we’ve been hit by rising energy costs, The last round of social investment we received – backed by the Dormant Asset Scheme - will help us to install energy saving lighting – dramatically reducing our bills and making more of our money available for our important work providing affordable furniture to low-income families.”

“We’ve seen first-hand how dormant assets can make a difference - it was clear that mainstream finance wasn’t going to work for us but social investment has – and each time we have received investment we’ve grown and become more sustainable, taken on a new challenge and employed more staff.”