The government has been encouraged to delay the upcoming increase to employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for charities to allow trustees more time to plan for the tax rise. 

In a submission as part of the government’s ongoing spending review, the Directory of Social Change (DSC) suggested the NICs rise could be delayed until 2026 to enable charities to secure income to pay the extra costs. 

DSC urged the government to alter the NICs thresholds to reduce the impact of the rise on medium-sized charities. 

It also called on the government to increase funding for local governments and health commissioners so they are able to cover the NICs rise and inflation increases in their contracts with charities. 

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has refused to exempt or reimburse charities’ estimated additional £1.4bn tax bill per year when NICs rise from 13.8% to 15% from April.

EU replacement funding

DSC also urged the government to work with the voluntary and community sector to provide long-term EU replacement funding.

Following the UK’s exit from the European bloc, the government launched its Shared Prosperity Fund to cover some of the funding shortfall for local communities.

However, as the fund closes, DSC urged the government to implement a long-term successor scheme that matches the amount of funding lost from leaving the EU.

DSC encouraged financial support for struggling councils and called for “robust mechanisms” for small charities to engage with local commissioners as part of the government’s devolution plans.

The organisation called on the government to reintroduce a requirement for companies to report charitable donations in their annual reports.

It also called for above-inflation increases to the budgets of charity regulators in all UK nations, with additional funding for the Charity Commission to enhance and update its register of charities.

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Ecclesiastical Insurance is urging churches to review their safety measures to keep these irreplaceable objects safe from theft.

A worrying new trend of silver theft from churches has seen irreplaceable silverware worth over £500,000 stolen from churches across the UK over the last 12 months, including in Suffolk, Northamptonshire, the West Midlands, Wiltshire, and Gloucestershire.

Churches have long been targeted by thieves stripping copper and lead from their roofs, but this emerging issue poses a threat to priceless historical and religious artefacts.

In one of the most high-profile incidents, Sherborne Abbey in Dorset was targeted in August 2024, with thieves stealing valuable silver communion items—including a processional cross, two virges, and a bishop’s crosier—causing significant damage and distress to the local church community.

Speaking of the break-in, Sherborne Abbey’s Rector The Reverend Martin Lee, said: “One thing is quite clear: they cased the joint, as it were, beforehand. The Abbey is open daily, and they would have had a warm welcome from the people at the door. They were cared for as they came in when we now know that they intended to see how they could steal from us.”

Holy Trinity Church in Bradford on Avon, a Grade I-listed 12th-century church, also fell victim to theft, losing a silver plate, chalices, and other sacred items.

Other break-ins across the country have left a trail of destruction, with stained glass windows shattered, heavy oak doors forced open with angle grinders, and even explosives used to access safes, which has left churches devastated in their wake.

The huge spike in thefts has led to specialist insurer Ecclesiastical urging churches to review and strengthen their security measures to protect their property from further attacks.

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As the UK and US cut funding, the case for helping people in poverty overseas must be made, argues Helen Morgan 

WHEN one of my relatives started working for a humanitarian agency, about 25 years ago, the reaction from their friends and relatives was generally positive: “It’s so good that you’re helping people, and so brave to work in disaster zones.” Today, when new colleagues join the agency, the reaction from their acquaintances is likely to be negative: “Why are we spending our money helping people abroad?” Similarly, politicians ask: “Why should we spend our money helping people elsewhere, when there are so many needs at home?”

The relevance of this question has been heightened by the Prime Min­ister’s announcement this week that the UK’s spending on international aid will fall from 0.5 to 0.3 per cent of na­­tional income, and by the recent sus­­pension of US government funding for aid and the impact that this has had on its wide-ranging projects in many disadvantaged countries (News, 7 February).

There are two misconceptions that need to be corrected. First, that international aid doesn’t work. It does: smallpox, which killed about 300 million people in the 20th century, has been eradicated. Polio vaccines have prevented about 20 million cases of child paralysis in the past 35 years. Cases of guinea-worm disease have dropped from 3.5 million a year in the 1980s to just a handful in 2024. The American emergency plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has saved more than 25 million lives. The number of people living in extreme poverty has dropped from almost two billion people in 1990 to just 700 million today.

Second, expenditure on international aid is a much smaller part of government budgets than most people realise. On average, British people think that 18 per cent of government spending goes on foreign aid. In fact, in 1970, developed countries set a target to allocate 0.7 per cent of their Gross National Income to international aid. The UK met this target in 2013. In 2021, however, the Government “temporarily” rolled its expenditure back to 0.5 per cent (News, 16 July 2021).

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