Two of the UK’s biggest disability charities are sitting on rainy day funds worth around £20m.
Mencap holds reserves of £9m, while the rainy day fund held by the National Autistic Society (NAS) now totals £10.9m.
Questions in Ireland
The Irish Society for Autism (ISA) recently faced questions after it emerged that the organisation holds €10m in assets.
Senator Micheál Carrigy chairs the Joint Committee on Autism in the Oireachtas, which is the Irish Parliament.
He said the assets were “a lot of money”, which could provide an “awful lot of work” to help many parents’ groups around Ireland.
Tara Matthews is the deputy executive director of the ISA.
She said the money “goes very quickly” and the charity had to be careful to ensure “it doesn’t disappear very quickly and then there is nothing”, according to The Irish Times.
Amounts seem ‘excessive’
Beth Morrison, whose grown-up son Calum has epilepsy, cerebral palsy, autism and a learning disability, runs the charity Positive and Active Behaviour Support Scotland (PABSS).
She said the amounts held by the charities seemed “excessive”.
Morrison said while it is “prudent to have a small reserve”, she would not be happy to donate to them knowing they were holding “this much”.
Charity holds ‘too much’
Parent Alicia McColl has a 19-year-old son on the autism spectrum.
McColl, 49, from Surrey, said the NAS’s running costs meant it needed to put money aside for contingencies.
However, she thought the £10.9m held by the NAS seemed significant and “too much”.
And she added that she thought the NAS’s senior management was overpaid. The charity has six staff, including chief executive Caroline Stevens, earning between £100,000 and £140,000.
Reserves at ‘lowest range’
Kelly Evans is the director of finance at the NAS.
She said although the charity’s business model ensures “regular cash inflow”, its reserves are at the “lowest range” and represent “approximately two months of operational costs”.
Richard Blakey is Mencap’s chief financial officer.
Blakey said the charity’s reserves are held to “respond to risk and uncertainty” and some of them have now been used to increase the hourly rate for care workers.
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Published: 15 May 2023
