Funds given to LET for distribution
At the time of writing (1 October 2017) LET has been given £8,034,435 to distribute to those affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower.
This has come from:
London Fire Relief Fund (British Red Cross) – £5,600,000
Kensington and Chelsea Foundation - £1,200,000
London Community Foundation / Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund – £1,200,000
Goldsmiths Company - £10,000
Royal Ascot Racecourse - £19,435
Safferey Champness - £5,000
This information, and all other distribution information, is available on the Charity Commission website and is updated regularly (weekly at present).
The main three funders who have asked LET to distribute funds have requested that LET focus on those bereaved and injured as a result of the fire. This is the most complex type of distribution, because in order to verify claims LET must work closely with families, the police, key workers, hospitals, and law firms.
However, in late September – in an exception to this - LET contributed £773,000 to a joint fund (with Kensington and Chelsea Foundation who contributed a further c£1.5m) to make payments to 139 Tower households and 26 Walk households, in recognition of the ongoing challenges face. These payments were made immediately by BACS to households by Rugby Portobello Trust.
About LET
London Emergencies Trust (LET) is a small charity set up to distribute public donations to those bereaved or injured following emergencies in the UK. Details can be found at:www.londonemergenciestrust.org.uk
It fundraises separately with trusts and foundations to cover its core operating costs, and relies on pro bono support (e.g. it has been gifted free office space by the CAN Mezzanine for 6 months). None of the funds passed to it are used to cover operating costs, 100% of these funds are distributed to Grenfell families and individuals.
LET’s approach
At Grenfell, distribution to the bereaved and injured has been made complicated by several factors.
The first is that there continues to be uncertainty about the number of people who were killed. To manage this, LET continues to budget on the basis of up to 100 deceased. That means that we must always set aside enough to make payments to new applications that come to us, and pay out to these new claims at the level paid out to others (which is currently £60,000).
The second is that often bereaved families need time to be ready to engage in these financial matters, and sometimes when they are ready there are disputes that make payments complicated.
Third, there are some cases where payments to minors require legal trust arrangements to be put in place.
Fourth, in respect of injury cases, it is sometimes very difficult to verify the time individuals spent in hospital.
Once LET has identified who are next of kin, or injured, it makes payments in consecutive ‘rounds’. This is because it is always difficult to know how much funding it has to distribute at the early stages of the emergency, and because there was not reliable data on the numbers of casualties. So we make an ‘initial’ payment and then make ‘top up’ payments when it is clear this is possible. Once people have received a first payment, subsequent payments are made automatically through BACS.
To date, payments to next of kin have reached £60,000 per deceased person – paid in three instalments of £20,000.
Those injured and hospitalised for one week or longer have received £25,000 – paid in three instalments (£10,000, £10,000 and £5,000)
Those injured and hospitalised for 6 hours or more have received £3,500 (and we are reviewing this to see whether we can make further payments)
We hope to increase the amounts we can distribute, continuing to prioritise the next of kin as funders wish, but in doing so we need to make sure that we always have enough to pay all cases that might in future come forward (as remains are discovered and identified). This is a very careful balancing act.
Breakdown of distribution (as of 1st October 2017).
1.Claims received: 134
Bereaved next of kin – 68 - £4,080,000 (total value of claims ie 68 x £60,000)
Long stay hospital – 12 - £300,000 (total value of claims ie 12 x £25,000)
Short stay hospital – 54 - £189,000 (total value of claims ie 54 x £3,500)
Total value – £4,569,000
2.Grants approved: 104
Bereaved next of kin – 49 - £2,940,000
Long stay hospital – 12 - £300,000
Short stay hospital – 43 - £150,500
Total value approved - £3,390,500
3.Grants paid: 99
(Note – there is a difference between grants awarded and those paid because in a small number of cases payments first require payee details to be clarified / legal trusts to be set up - eg in the case of a minor receiving funds)
Bereaved next of kin – 44 - £2,615,000
Long stay hospital – 12 - £300,000
Short stay hospital – 43 - £150,500
Total Value paid- £3,065,500
4.Applications received and undergoing verification: 23
(Note – these cases take time because we work with families, police, social workers and law firms to work through issues such as family disputes. In injury cases we face data protection challenges in accessing details of hospital stays)
Bereaved next of kin – 19 (4 complex family cases relating to 16 claims) – £1,140,000
Long stay hospital – 0
Short stay hospital – 4 - £14,000
Total value of application undergoing checks - £1,154,000
Rejected applications : 7
(Note - All of these are applications were for short hospital stays, which have not met the criteria set)
Total value - £24,500
Funds applied for and funds being ‘ear-marked’
As the above makes clear, LET holds a budget of £8,034,435 and is dealing with applications to the total value of £4,544,500 (£4,569,000 total requested minus £24,500 of rejected applications).
Awards totalling £3,390,500 have already been approved, along with a payment of £773,000 for survivors. We expect to quite quickly pay out the £1,154,000 being checked and shortly therefore our distribution will be at the level of £5,317,500.
That leaves balance of £2,716,935
However, from this we have ring-fenced £1,920,000 so that we are in a position to pay out to the families of up to 32 further deceased cases that might come to us.
Taking this in to account, that leaves us with £796,935. We are looking at how we can make further ‘top up’ payments to next of kin and injured, but in doing so we need also to be able to increase that sum ring fenced for future cases – this is a complicated balancing act.
Over the next few months, as we become clearer about the total number of fatalities, LET will review this approach – which we hope will result in our being able to release some currently ring fenced £1.92m funds for further distribution.