How we use dormant assets money
One of the ways The National Lottery Community Fund gives out funding is through something called the Dormant Assets Scheme.
Dormant assets funding does not come from National Lottery ticket sales.
The scheme allows us to support communities and good causes across the UK with unused financial assets.
About the Dormant Assets Scheme
Under the UK government's Dormant Assets Scheme, we give out funding using lost or forgotten financial assets, such as old bank accounts.
If these assets cannot be reunited with their owners, we distribute some of the money to social and environmental causes.
There are specific legal powers that allow us to do this. These are:
the Dormant Assets Bank and Building Society Accounts Act (2008)
the Dormant Assets Act 2022, which built upon the 2008 Act
Under this legislation, organisations which deal with financial assets can transfer money from accounts that have not been used for a long time to Reclaim Fund Ltd.
The organisations that can do this are:
banks
building societies
insurance companies
pension providers
wealth management services
securities providers
Reclaim Fund Ltd keeps some of the money aside in case someone claims it. They transfer the surplus to us, and we give this out as funding.
The National Lottery Community Fund is the only distributor of dormant assets money.
What we’ve funded with dormant assets money
The legislation says that dormant assets money should be given out:
to social and environmental causes
in all four UK countries
The government in each country makes its own decisions on how best to use these funds. For more details, you can read each country's spending directions for how they want us to distribute dormant assets.
Here are some of the funding programmes and organisations that we've funded through the Dormant Assets Scheme.
Wales
Scotland
Northern Ireland
England
We've also distributed dormant assets money to specific organisations in England. These organisations are:
We also fund the Oversight Trust, which is an independent body that is responsible for overseeing how these 4 organisations manage their funding.