Oxfam GB puts 265 jobs at risk to tackle estimated £16.5m deficit

The aid charity, which employs 2,100 staff, is consulting on proposals that affect about 13 per cent of its workforce.

The proposals, which are subject to a 45-day consultation period, are expected to shave £10.2m off Oxfam GB’s wage bill in the 2025/26 financial year.

When asked which staff would be affected, the charity said it was unable to share details because it was still in the early stages of the consultation process.

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Interim managers appointed to charity after gold bullion discovery

The Charity Commission has appointed interim managers to a Catholic charity that showed support for far-right groups, wrongly obtained tens of thousands of pounds worth of Gift Aid payments and allowed £30,000 of its assets to be held in gold bullion by people with no formal connection to the organisation.

The regulator said it opened an inquiry into The Saint George Educational Trust, which is based in Hampshire, in 2022 after it identified concerns that the charity was engaging in activities, including online content, that did not appear to further its religious purposes.

The commission said it found the charity’s chair had allowed its bank account to receive donations from unknown sources, which were then transferred to entities unknown to the trustees.  

The trustees then successfully claimed Gift Aid worth £80,455 on funds coming into the charity and the SGET retained 20 per cent of the Gift Aid funds, with the remainder being transferred to accounts unknown to the trustees, according to the commission. 

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Flag stolen from RNLI station is returned 56 years later

The charity said it had received the flag, along with a handwritten letter of apology and a £20 donation, from one of the then 17-year-olds who took it from the Trearddur Bay station on Holy Island, Anglesey, north Wales. 

The letter said: “In 1969 me and two friends were camping up the road from you, one night on the way back to the tent we passed your station and flag pole, one of us climbed up the pole and took the flag!! 

“Wrong of us. We were only 17 at the time, but that’s no excuse!! Very sorry.”

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