I believed there was a time when charities gave money to individuals when they were in crisis or needed specific support with equipment and other costs, and that this time is going or has gone. Now so many charities are simply ‘not for profit but still big salaries’ businesses who run services on behalf the local or national government. While I do agree with the not giving fish but giving fishing rods ideology, it should still be about supporting, enabling and empowering the individual but these so-called charities are now too dependent on the income of maintaining the level of need for the services they run to be interpreted in the individual.

Charities need to either admit that they are now no more than businesses at the cutting edge of this government’s bargain basement privatisation policy, where contracts are awarded on the deal a percentage of the staff are unpaid and so-called volunteers forced into these jobs for required experience, or return to their roots and start supporting individuals again in a traditional meaning of charity.

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