The UK government has established a Gambling Levy Transition Fund (GLTF) to support those research, education and treatment (RET) organisations facing closure.
The fund, which has been “rapidly established” by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), comes days after EGR revealed those RET organisations which missed out in last week’s statutory levy funding round faced the risk of redundancies and potential shuttering.
Organisations were informed by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) if they had been successful, with those being approved having until this week to accept offers.
Amid the fears of closure for unsuccessful organisations, the new GLTF will be available to those that had their application for funding rejected entirely by OHID.
The stop-gap funding will support entities from 1 April until 30 June. Organisations can now apply for GLTF funding, with a closing date of 30 April.
The government will provide the equivalent pro rata value of three months funding that organisations previously received under the voluntary levy model.
“For instance, if you have received £120,000 of voluntary system funding to support 12 months of provision, we will provide no more than £30,000 to support three months of provision,” the government said.
Applicants for GLTF must have previously been funded under the old voluntary levy model and must be delivering support this month to end users.
The government noted the funding support will help those end users potentially at risk of gambling-related harm due to organisations closing or reducing outputs.
The government added: “The transition from the previous voluntary, industry-funded arrangements to the new statutory gambling levy is likely to result in changes to the existing delivery landscape.
“It is the intention of the DCMS to ensure there is an effective transition between these arrangements, ensuring service users and beneficiary groups are not negatively affected by this period of change.
“DCMS therefore intends to make available grant funding to organisations delivering prevention or treatment of gambling harm provision funded by the previous voluntary system but who have not been successful in securing funding from the statutory gambling levy.”
The post DCMS opens last-minute levy transition fund to protect organisations at risk of closure first appeared on EGR Intel.
Government confirms new Gambling Levy Transition Fund to allow organisations that did not receive funding from OHID to continue operating until June
The post DCMS opens last-minute levy transition fund to protect organisations at risk of closure first appeared on EGR Intel.