.png)
.png)
Key points
- Fundraising for the tax charities continues despite the pandemic.
- Not everyone has been able to access government financial support.
- Services set up by the charities include a special helpline and new online guidance.
- Ways to support the tax charities and help raise funds.
In a few weeks’ time I should have been flying to Tanzania with a group of tax professionals for a sponsored ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro – in aid of the tax charities TaxAid and Tax Help for Older People. Climbing to the summit at almost 6,000m, while helping the tax charities, was due to be culmination of more than a year of planning. Then, rather than altitude sickness, coronavirus struck.
While taking the difficult decision to delay our trip for 12 months, we did not want to let down the charities that I feel passionate about; they do incredible work to help vulnerable low income people with complex tax issues, not least during this pandemic. But the charities need help with fundraising now – as well as in 2021. I am always one for a challenge – years in tax made sure of that – so, some brainstorming led to a 2020 alternative challenge. This one is UK-based, free and allows for social distancing: #notKili2020 – a new challenge with altitude! This involves:
- ascending the height of Kilimanjaro (from the park gate to the summit – around 3,600m climb) up your own stairs or a local hill multiple times;
- walking the 72km distance of the trek round the house, garden or further afield; or
- doing both!
FitBit says this is around 1,200 flights of stairs or 100,000 steps.
A few of us have already signed up. In fact, I did a practice climb over a week up my stairs, to check it was feasible even for an oldie like me. It was, though my knees moaned. But to ensure it really was a challenge I have repeated it twice with a backpack, adding more dumbbells to the pack as each week evolved – 12kg is my limit.
Why am I doing this?
Some of the people who have suffered most economically during the Covid-19 pandemic are people who were already on very low incomes – for example, people in the gig economy – many of whom have seen their livelihoods disappear. Government support has been available but many people have needed help to access it (for example in producing tax returns).
TaxAid and Tax Help for Older People were keen to help and swiftly developed a new service which involved:
- a coronavirus helpline, 9am till 5 pm, initially around the self-employed income support scheme (SEISS);
- this was backed up by further telephone advice sessions, including helping people bring their tax returns up to date;
- new website guidance, self-help videos on YouTube, and a live Facebook session on SEISS;
- extending this to cover advice on the job retention scheme, which affects many individuals; and
- the charities targeting the estimated 1.2 million people (many digitally excluded) who are eligible for SEISS but have not claimed.
All this was backed by advertising and approaches to other agencies working with people affected by the pandemic. We have marketed the new service through social media and an email campaign. Twitter and Facebook are also used and we were delighted that Martin Lewis helped spread the word in his newsletter. There have been significant increases in social media, Facebook and YouTube Channel engagements in addition to website engagement.
At the same time, the charities themselves successfully moved to homeworking overnight, with some valuable practical support from Deloitte. As a result, they have still been able to provide a full service to their many vulnerable clients.
However, due to the pandemic, several planned fundraising events have had to be cancelled, so to keep funding these new and ongoing activities it is vital that the fundraising continues.
So what can you do?
Here is an opportunity for us all to help vulnerable people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
How about joining the #notKili2020 challenge? This can be tackled as you like and over whatever period is a challenge (depending on circumstances) but must be finished before 27 September 2020 – the date we were due to fly back from Tanzania. Will you join us?
More details about the challenge and how to register to join can be found at: https://tinyurl.com/eventbritenotKili. The group sponsorship page is at: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/notKili2020. Or set up your own Virgin money giving page. Alternatively, please consider sponsoring the team and make a one-off donation.
Since my three ‘practice climbs’ I have repeated the ‘trip’ – weights and all – in what was one of the hottest weeks ever in the UK. I swore I’d never repeat the exploit. But we have now raised over £2,000 and if we can get to £5,000 I have promised to repeat the climb one more time!
We are still hoping to do the real Kilimanjaro climb next year. Action Challenge is working hard to ensure the trip will be as safe as possible for us and the local team. Anyone interested in joining us should contact Tina Riches at tina@richestax.co.uk.
So, please be generous and participate or donate to these amazing charities as we tackle this mountain. Thank you! #StaySafe.
