CHANGES TO THE GRANT SCHEME FROM 1 APRIL 2011

We are now in a position to announce how the LPW scheme will work from 11/12 onwards. The new scheme will have a proper, fixed budget, and, as we said in January 2011

‘..the way the scheme works will be reviewed so we can manage it in the most simple and un-bureaucratic way possible in order to stay within the budget cap already announced.’

We have sought a solution which is as easy to administer as possible, is fair, and which achieves the widest possible spread of benefit. We have consulted closely with church representatives and, with them, have come up with the following new approach:

• The new scheme will not be operational until the 2nd quarter of 11/12 with the first payments under the new scheme made in October 2011;
  
  
• The scheme will operate with quarterly fixed budgets. Payments will be made once per quarter and the payable rate will depend on the value of the eligible claims received in that quarter, with each claim attracting a fair pro-rata payment. The benefits of this are that everyone will receive a payment and we will ensure that all available money is used;
  
  
• The maximum grant payable in response to any application will be 20% of project costs (i.e. the maximum payable will be the full rate of VAT incurred on eligible expenditure) and the scope continues as it has been since January 4th. If the total funding is not used in any quarter, it will be available in the following quarter (but not transferable between financial years). We will publicise at the end of each quarter the value of the applications received and the applicable payable rate;
  
  
• Application will be made in the same way as before, except that it will not be possible to accept claims where the supporting invoices are more than one year old. The previous scheme’s open-ended approach was too lax for efficient management, but we think that giving everyone a full year to submit their applications should still be plenty of time.

Payment dates and claim deadlines

The total budget available for FY 2012/13 is £12.35 million. Payments will be made around the middle of July, October, January and April. In order for an eligible claim to be included in one of the quarterly payment runs:

• Applications must be received by the last working day of the preceding month- June, September, December and March.
  
  
• Any queries on your application must be resolved by the deadline stipulated below. If your query cannot be resolved within this time, your application will roll forward into the next quarter, and that quarter’s payable rate will apply. In order to minimise the queries needing resolution at quarter-end, you are asked to submit your application as early as possible in the relevant quarter.

Dates and budgets for 2012/13

The total budget for the scheme for 12/13 is £12.35million. This will be allocated as follows:

Quarter	Period ending	Applications to be received by	Queries to be cleared by	Payment to be made on or around	Total funding for the period (to include administration)
1	30 June 2012	29 June 2012	5 July 2012	16 July 2012	£3.088 million
2	30 September 2012	28 September 2012	4 October 2012	15 October 2012	£3.088 million
3	31 December 2012	31 December 2012	9 January 2013	21 January 2013	£3.088 million
4	31 March 2013	29 March 2013	4 April 2013	18 April 2013	£3.088 million

These figures include grant assessment and processing costs, project monitoring costs and IT development.