At St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity we are proud of our work to tackle homelessness. For many years as one part of our work we have provided small emergency grants via frontline workers across the UK to help tens of thousands of individuals move into accommodation and away from homelessness.
A key challenge in tackling homelessness is helping people overcome the financial barriers to moving into new accommodation, from the cost of moving, appropriate ID, to paying deposits and rent in advance. Our emergency grants programme allows frontline staff working in organisations across the UK who work with people experiencing or at risk of homelessness to apply to us for up to £500 towards these costs.
Earlier this year we were shocked to uncover that an external frontline worker had been making fraudulent claims to us for this support. This behaviour came to light as a result of the diligence of one of our team and is an isolated case. The fraud was sophisticated and followed a period of legitimate claims.
As soon as we became aware, we immediately suspended the individual’s ability to access grants, reported the issue to our bank and to their employers, and instituted a thorough investigation. We have strict application and follow-up reporting criteria and requirements but the individual in question had deliberately gone to great lengths to falsify information about people being helped, tenancies and landlords.
We’ve reviewed all the applications the individual made to us and our processes more widely. This is an isolated case, accounting for less than 1% of the almost 45,000 grants (totalling nearly £15 million) awarded through the programme since 2016, but we have addressed it with the utmost seriousness.
We have reported the fraud directly to Action Fraud, the Charity Commission and the Police. The Police are now taking forward an active investigation into all aspects of the case and we are working with them to pursue justice and, as far as is possible, to recover funds.
To provide assurance we appointed independent charity fraud experts Sayer Vincent to conduct a thorough review of our grants programme to check there were not other incidents of fraud. Sayer Vincent’s independent assessment is that there is: “no evidence that the programme contains further systemic fraud. We believe that the grant-making programme has been set up in a fundamentally sound way and is fit for purpose.”
This assessment is welcome but sadly sophisticated fraud is an all too common and growing problem affecting charities with 2 in 5* affected last year. With this in mind, we have taken steps to make the grants programme even more rigorous to give further confidence to ourselves, partners and funders. We will continue to actively monitor all aspects of it whilst maintaining access to these essential grants for people who are homeless or at risk of becoming so.
We are distressed by what has happened but remain focused on our priority to tackle homelessness. At a time when homelessness is rising and securing new accommodation is ever more difficult and challenging, it is vital we continue to provide this emergency grants programme, which has helped 1000s of people every year. Feedback from the over 7000 people supported last year shows 87% of those helped felt they had a safe place to live thanks to the grant.
We are so grateful for the support of all those who donate to us. Without you we literally would not be able to provide this programme and our other services to prevent, tackle and resolve homelessness.
We are committed to ensuring we use the funds the charity is given wisely and responsibly and we value the trust placed in us to deliver our vital mission to help more people into a safe place to call home. Please be assured of our best endeavours and transparency in addressing this matter and sharing this information with you.
Thank you for your support.
The Trustees of St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity
* 2 in 5 charities were affected by fraud last year according to the Fraud Advisory Panel and BDO, Charity-Fraud-Survey-snapshot-2024.pdf
For any enquiries please contact info@stmartinscharity.org.uk