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Checks we do to assess risk

Our risk checks

The vast majority of people that apply to us are honest, but very occasionally we receive an application that raises serious concerns.

As we are responsible for public money, we have a duty to assess the level of risk associated with any application or project that we fund. We therefore have a range of checks to help us assess risk.

We can’t give specific details about all the checks we carry out as this would reduce how effective they are. However, we can give you some general information about the things we look at and how we handle any concerns we identify.

Identity checks

The people named as contacts on the application form or any other documentation should be fully aware of the application and the project.

To help us reduce the possibility of fraud we may use the name, home address and date of birth of any named contacts to carry out some basic identity checks. We are more likely to be able to verify someone’s identity if they are on the electoral roll or have a Citizen Card.

We use credit reference agencies to validate personal information. This is not a credit check and will not show on any history if you are seeking credit from other organisations.

If your named contacts change during the life of a grant, it is your responsibility to inform us of these changes as soon as they happen. We may conduct the same checks on these people.

We can only give your organisation an award or make grant payments if:

  • we can verify the identity of your named contacts and there are no identified issues
  • we are satisfied that it would be safe to entrust public funds to your organisation

It is important that all personal information on your application form is accurate and complete. Make sure that the names you provide are the same as those on legal documents, such as passports, immigration documents or driving licences.

If we have cause for concern or if we haven’t spoken to you for a long time, we may phone you to confirm your personal details for security purposes.

As well as at application stage, our identity checks can take place at any point while you have a grant. If these checks raise concerns regarding the identity of your named contacts or alert us to matters that might make it risky for us to entrust public funds to your organisation, your grant could be withdrawn under the terms and conditions of the grant.

If we can’t verify the named contacts, we will write to you with the details of the credit referencing agencies we used. You cannot appeal against our decision if it is based upon the identity checks that we carry out.

History with us and public information

If you or your organisation applies to us, we will consider how any applications or grants with us from your organisation have been managed in the past. We will also consider the people involved in your organisation, so it is important that you know the people you are working with and carry out your own due diligence.

We may identify concerns about an individual involved with your organisation. This concern may be identified by the history with your organisation, the individual’s involvement with other organisations of concern or through information about them in the public domain, e.g. regulatory bodies, your own website, your social media pages or other internet searches.

Owing to the restrictions under data protection legislation, we may not be able to provide you with any information on this area or attempt to resolve the concern that we have.

Fraud

If we identify a fraud risk during our assessment of your application, we may reject your application. If we become aware of any fraud while you are managing our grant, we will write to you to instigate the recovery of our money. We will withdraw any future payments, and we may inform the Police.

If you provide false or inaccurate information in your application or at any point in the life of any funding we award you, and fraud is identified, we will provide details including the names of the Company Directors at the time of the fraud to fraud prevention agencies. We will not tolerate money-laundering or any attempt to defraud our money.

For more detail on how we use fraud prevention agencies:

Release of information

To protect the Fund’s internal fraud detection and prevention mechanisms, we will not release any further specific information on our risk analysis process or the results of our checks.

Can I reapply?

Yes you can, although we will conduct the same checks on any new application. If these show that there has been no change in the concerns that we have, it is unlikely that our decision will change. You should also remember that the programme that you are applying to may only be open for a limited period.

If you have any questions regarding our risk analysis checks, email customer.services@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk or call 0345 4 10 20 30.