@Car_abrahams comments on the finance package to support the voluntary sector announced today by @RishiSunak - thread:

"This must be understood in the context that everyday, charities across the country are working their socks off to ensure people come through this terrible health crisis as well as they humanly can.

Charities are throwing themselves into the fight with little regard for tomorrow, concentrating 110% instead on providing desperately needed help - in some cases they are literally saving lives

We know our local Age UKs are among them, focusing all their energy on giving older people in their areas practical and emotional support they would otherwise completely lack and we are hugely proud of all that they are doing.

It's right that the first priority should be to enable all these charities and community groups to keep delivering while the virus is such a present threat but life is not going to return to normal in most places for years to come, certainly so far as older people are concerned.

The huge surge in demand for help from charities is going to be there for the foreseeable future, yet the extra funding announced by the Chancellor today is geared only to providing short term relief.

This means it is probably best seen as a down payment for the sustained support the charity sector and the country really needs to avoid waking up in one or two year's time to find many of the country's best loved charities have simply had to fold."