The Dormant Assets Schemes transforms otherwise dormant money into lasting, real-world impact across communities throughout the UK.
Since 2011, the Scheme has shown how even small amounts of unclaimed money, when pooled together, can be harnessed to benefit society at scale.
The Scheme distributes funding through through The National Lottery Community Fund via expert organisations that focus on different areas of impact, in line with the government’s strategic spend direction.
A National Strategy for Social Impact
The UK Government’s Dormant Assets Scheme Strategy, published in 2025, outlines the long-term ambitions for how dormant assets funding should be deployed to deliver sustainable outcomes across social and environmental causes.
England
In England, dormant asset funding is allocated across four causes:
Youth
Broadening access to enrichment, wellbeing and employment opportunities to young people.
Delivered by The National Lottery Community Fund and Youth Futures Foundation.
Financial inclusion
Improving access to affordable financial products and services, and supporting individuals to develop their financial capability.
Delivered by Fair4All Finance.
Social investment wholesalers
Supporting charities and social enterprises to grow sustainably.
Delivered by Better Society Capital and Access- The Foundation for Social Investment.
Community wealth funds
Empowering local people to invest in long-term community priorities.
Delivered by The National Lottery Community Fund.
Devolved administrations
In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, dormant asset funding is delivered through The National Lottery Community Fund in line with priorities set out by the devolved administrations’ governments.
Scotland
Helping children and young people aged 8 to 24 to build confidence and realise their potential.
Delivered through the Young Start programme.
Wales
Helping communities across the country to be more environmentally sustainable.
Delivered through the Sustainable Steps Wales programme.
Northern Ireland
Helping to increase the capability, resilience and sustainability of the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector.
Delivered through the Dormant Assets for All programme.
The Scheme’s impact is tracked and reported through regular publications that show how funds are spent and what outcomes they achieve.
Each organisation in the ecosystem is responsible for setting out how they have distributed their share of dormant assets funding across the UK.
Through the work of Access and our partners, over 1,200 charities and social enterprises have benefitted to date from this transformative funding, enabling vital community organisations—often excluded from mainstream finance—to grow and thrive. This funding has also helped leverage additional funds from philanthropic and private sources.
Thanks to the financial institutions that have chosen to participate in this pioneering scheme, the Scheme is able to stimulate economic activity in deprived areas and drive real impact across communities in need.
The Dormant Assets Scheme
Reclaim Fund Ltd (RFL) runs the UK’s Dormant Assets Scheme. This voluntary initiative
Reasons to Participate
Participating in the Dormant Assets Scheme is good for consumers, good for firms and
How to Join
Whether you’re a major multinational firm or a small community-based entity, Reclaim