The government's dormant assets scheme allows money in accounts that have been dormant for at least 15 years to be made available for certain qualifying charitable and community causes.

The Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden has announced that £150 million from dormant bank and building society accounts is to be unlocked to help charities, social enterprises and vulnerable individuals during the Coronavirus outbreak.

The £150 million charity injection is made up of the accelerated release of £71 million of new funds from dormant accounts alongside £79 million already unlocked that will be repurposed to help charities’ Coronavirus response and recovery.

The money will be used to support urgent work to tackle youth unemployment, expand access to emergency loans for civil society organisations and help improve the availability of fair, affordable credit to people in vulnerable circumstances.

Since the scheme was launched in 2011 over £600 million has been distributed to good causes. However, it is important to note that the original account holder retains the rights to repayment of any monies within the scheme after providing satisfactory proof that the money is theirs.