17 May 2007
Unclaimed assets distribution mechanism: a consultation
As announced in the 2005 Pre-Budget Report, the Government has been working together with the bank and building society sector to design a scheme to allow money in dormant bank and building society accounts to be reinvested in society, while protecting consumers' rights to reclaim their money at any time.
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Ed Balls, and the Minister for the Third Sector, Ed Miliband, have jointly launched a second consultation document on the development of a UK unclaimed assets scheme, setting out proposals for the effective and efficient distribution of those assets which remain genuinely unclaimed back into society. The document follows on from the initial consultation on the operations of the scheme which was published on 20 March 2007.
The document proposes using The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) as the main UK-wide unclaimed assets distribution body. BIG has a UK-wide distribution infrastructure in place, capacity to handle assets on this scale, extensive experience of delivering community programmes and the know-how to distribute funding through a different range of organisations, particularly within the third sector.
The focus of these resources, in England, will be youth services that are responsive to the needs of young people, followed by financial capability and inclusion. Resources permitting, the Government would also like to see a proportion of the available assets used to help develop the social investment market and contribute the long-term sustainability of the third sector.
The devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will determine their own priorities for distribution which reflect the needs of communities in each country.
Unclaimed assets distribution mechanism: a consultation is available in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can download the software free of charge from the Adobe website. For alternative ways to read PDF documents and further information on website accessibility visit the HM Treasury accessibility page.