Will money from the Health Lottery reach carers?

Is the health lottery good news for charities?

The health lottery aims to boost funds to disadvantaged groups but existing schemes say it will undercut them while offering less money to good causes.

The Guardian,

The WRVS older people‘s charity, Princess Royal Trust for Carers and conservation organisation BTCV are among nine “charity partners” receiving money from a controversial new lottery launched earlier this month.

The health lottery, run by Northern & Shell, which owns Channel 5 and Express newspapers, intends to generate around £50m a year for charities and community groups tackling health inequality in England, Scotland and Wales.

The money is being distributed by the People’s Health Trust (PHT) to fund activities that reduce isolation among older people, provide support to carers and support projects that help create healthier environments and communities.

A grant of £37,500 to fund WRVS transport and shopping services for isolated older residents in the Scottish Borders was one of the initial nine payments totalling £342,000 awarded in south Scotland and the east of England after the inaugural health lottery draw on 8 October that was televised on ITV and Channel 5.

Charities in Solihull and Birmingham, and Cumbria and Northumberland received a further £320,000, following the second draw on Saturday. PHT has also set up a small grants programme to award grassroots organisations grants of between £5,000 and £10,000. More than 500 groups have already registered an interest in becoming beneficiaries.

Tom Flood, chief executive of BTCV, whose Green Gym programme is receiving health lottery money, says: “In these difficult economic times, these funds will help us reach some of the most disadvantaged people and enable them to turn their lives around.”

But the scheme has come under fire, not only for donating 20.34p per £1 ticket to health-related good causes, compared with 28p per ticket sale going to good causes from the national lottery, but also for potentially misleading the public about its support for local causes.

The Hospice Lotteries Association (HLA) fears the health lottery will rob its 115 members of more than £25m a year income raised by their individual lotteries.

Garth Caswell, HLA chair, says: “We believe that hospice lotteries are under threat from people mistakenly thinking they can achieve the same charitable goals of giving to local health-related charities and at the same time stand a chance of winning larger prizes by playing the health lottery. What isn’t made clear is where the money is going each week.”

The health lottery is made up of 51 local society lotteries, each representing a different area. Only a few of the local lotteries will take part in the health lottery each week, and receive funds, but tickets can be brought for the draw to win the £100,000 jackpot at any of the 40,000 retailers across England, Scotland and Wales that have signed up to sell tickets.

How the regeneration of the Beacon Estate in Cornwall boosted residents’ health Link to this videoJohn Hume, chief executive of the PHT, explains that the 51 areas will each receive around £1m a year from the health lottery.

Hume, whose grantmaking credentials include leading a £500m cancer and palliative care grant programme for the Big Lottery Fund, refutes the notion that hospices will lose out. “Their players are an entirely different audience to the health lottery. They are loyal donors that have a link with the hospice. They are not playing for the prize money. I don’t think for one second they will leave.”

He also does not expect the health lottery to entice players away from the national lottery, which last year donated £270m to health charities out of £1.3bn given to good causes. “Market research from other sectors suggests that competition grows a market,” he says.

But Stephen Bubb, head of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, warns there is a “clear danger” that people will choose to play the new lottery, resulting in less money for charities. Bubb accuses the health lottery of going against the “spirit of the law” that requires individual society lotteries to be promoted separately. He has written to culture secretary Jeremy Hunt urging him to review legislation to prevent new lotteries springing up to undercut existing schemes that are more generous to charities.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport says it is too early to see whether the health lottery will have an impact on money raised for good causes by other lotteries, but it has issued a statement saying: “We will be interested to see how this plays out and may, in time, need to consider revising the regulations.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/19/health-lottery-good-news-charities?newsfeed=true