4:00pm Sunday 19th July 2009
NAOMI House will receive a dividend payment of 20 per cent from administrators for the failed British bank Kaupthing, Singer and Friedlander Limited, by the end of this month. The distribution, £1.16m, is the first payment the hospice has received since its funds were frozen in October 2008.
Professor Khalid Aziz, chairman of Naomi House, said: “We welcome the dividend payment that has been announced, but it is not enough to ensure that we can open jacksplace in the autumn as we had planned, or reinstate our Hospice at Home service for families. “It will cost £4.5m to run the charity once jacksplace is fully open, and we simply do not have the financial resources to consider it at the moment. The only way we can realise our ambitions to provide children and teenagers with a full hospice service is the return of the whole £5.7m that is currently at risk.”
Naomi House has provided more than 350 families with care and support since 1997. The current financial crisis is the first time in its history that the hospice has been forced to withdraw any of the support it provides. The payment by the administrators has been welcomed by families, but they remain concerned about the funds that remain at risk.
Correspondence from several Government ministers to Naomi House has said they will not make charities, including Naomi House, an exception to other creditors of the bank. However, this has been contradicted by the reimbursing of funds to other charities caught in the crisis.
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