Chancellor urged to lift outdated sales cap and release £132million for good causes – at zero cost to taxpayers
The People’s Postcode Lottery is urging the Chancellor to use her Autumn Budget to lift the outdated annual sales limit on charity lottery licences.
The move would unlock up to £132million in extra funding for good causes across Great Britain without cost to the Treasury.
The Postcode Lottery is pressing the Treasury to remove - or modestly increase to £100m - the annual per licence sales limit on Britain’s charity lotteries.
The change, which the Chancellor could enable as a cost-neutral measure, would help charities struggling with rising costs and soaring demand.
As it is applied on a per licence basis, the annual sales limit is a non-player-facing change that has no impact on the overall volume of charity lottery ticket sales.
Implementing this long-called for reform would therefore have no impact on commercial sales of the National Lottery, which continues to be afforded monopoly status in legislation.
An independent study commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) earlier this year found that removing the annual sales cap would deliver a net increase of up to £132m for Britain’s charity sector by lowering operator bureaucracy and increasing funding flexibility.
Charities were among those hit hardest by last year’s rise in employer National Insurance Contributions.
The sector also continues to face wider pressures as operating costs soar and reserves dwindle.
Over 100 of Britain's best-known and most-loved charities have previously written to the Government backing People’s Postcode Lottery’s call.
Clara Govier, managing director of People’s Postcode Lottery, said: “Lifting the annual per-licence cap costs the Treasury nothing but would unlock millions in funds for charities at a time when demand for their services is soaring.
“This change has nothing to do with how many players People’s Postcode Lottery can acquire– our brand is already thriving through the generosity of the British people. However, it is everything to do with increasing our players’ charitable impact across the country.”
The proposal would leave the current charity lottery top prize unchanged at just £500,000.
This stands in contrast to the National Lottery’s ability to entice players with huge multi-million-pound prizes – a tool which for the last half decade has also been available to large for-profit prize draw operators like Omaze, on account of government failure to regulate the burgeoning sector.
One of the charities affected by the cap is Magic Breakfast, who are working to ensure no child is too hungry to learn.
Magic Breakfast chief executive, Lindsey MacDonald, said: “At Magic Breakfast we are responding to vastly increased need, yet because of the charity lottery sales limits our funding from charity lotteries is stagnating in real terms.
“We continue to support this reform and urge the Chancellor to act in her Budget.”
Another affected charity is Crisis, which exists to end homelessness.
Crisis chief executive, Matt Downie said: “People’s Postcode Lottery’s fundraising provides a vital, dependable and unique funding stream to support the vital work of Crisis across the country as we seek to end homelessness.
It defies common sense that such charity lottery fundraising is subject to a cap on their annual sales and by extension, the scale of their fundraising efforts in support of Crisis and so many other charities. We therefore urge the Chancellor to be the politician that enables this simple but significant reform to help charity lotteries raise even more for charities”
