For the year ending 31 March 2010 the Refugee Council had an income of £20,103,000 and an expenditure of £18,646,000. As the leading charity working with refugees in the UK we received £16,995,000 from statutory funders to deliver mainstream services on behalf of government agencies. This includes £10,734,000 from the UK Border Agency (obtained through competitive tendering) to provide advice and support services to asylum seekers in four regions.
In 2009/10 we raised £3,061,000 from voluntary sources. This includes donations from individuals and fundraising events and we also receive generous support from a number of charitable trusts and foundations, charitable companies and agencies.
Many charities are being affected by the current public sector spending cuts, however the refugee sector is being hit with some of the largest – the funding for our frontline support advice service has been cut by over 60%. This goes well beyond what we had expected and, whilst government departments have been given four years to make their cuts, we have been asked to accommodate these in a single year. This is devastating news for us and our clients who, already facing huge challenges in the UK, will struggle even more to get the help they so desperately need. It means that in 2011/12 our income will be in the region of £10,000,000.
Last year we began streamlining our work so that cuts in government funding had as little direct impact on our most vulnerable clients as possible, however the scale of the cuts has meant that we are now having to take further steps to reorganise our services. It is inevitable that, with such substantial reductions in funding, we won’t be able to help everyone who needs our support.
We rely entirely on voluntary donations to research, campaign and lobby Parliament on areas of concern and to improve the asylum system and to deliver such as our day centre for destitute refugees; direct specialist services for vulnerable groups including women who have been victims of sexual violence; and our work with separated refugee children whose special needs are not covered by mainstream services. Read more about our funding needs.
Throughout the UK, some refugees are so close to the edge that they are being forced to live in the most desperate and degrading of circumstances.
Find out how we fundraise from private sources and from the general public.
