By the end of this year, we will have distributed circa £190,000 of increased regular allowances and other grants to our beneficiaries and our trustees have recently agreed to give a further additional one off “cost of living crisis” payment in January 2023 to compensate for the rising costs of food and energy increases on top of the existing winter fuel allowance we provide in March each year.
Our beneficiaries are helped in many ways with a combination of grants and allowances, including quarterly payments, TV licences, telephone allowances, payments in the spring and at Christmas, a winter fuel allowance and luxury Christmas hampers. We also make one-off grants for domestic appliances and disabled equipment as well as the occasional respite break, debt relief and help with funeral expenses.
Our beneficiaries are all extremely grateful for the society’s help and they continually write, email and telephone to thank us and everyone supporting us – our help is greatly appreciated and makes a real difference to their lives.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the political turmoil in the UK and the turbulence in world markets have all taken a toll on our investment portfolio and we are still not fully back to normal after the Covid pandemic, but hopefully we will see an improvement in 2023.
We are very grateful to TTJ, the London Hardwood Club, the Structural Timber Association, Timber Development UK, the Shippers Lunch, the Plywood Luncheon Club, the Worshipful Company of Builders Merchants, James Donaldson, Taylor Maxwell Timber, the Carver Group and all other regular company and individual donors including our nine regional committees, who have supported us financially during the year – thank you to everyone who has donated or carried out other fund-raising to help us continue our vital work to assist the retired, sick and less fortunate from our industry.
We continue to seek out new beneficiaries and this will be an ongoing priority and, through company’s HR departments, the TTBS strives to ensure employees know where they can get help in the future. We also need some new blood in our regional committees, so if you feel you can help please get in touch at info@ttbs.org.uk and we will put you in touch with your local committee who will welcome your involvement.
Critically, the society continues networking with the timber industry to ensure that we are in the forefront for support for the “Timber Trade’s OWN charity”
Finally, we hope that 2023 will see a continued improvement for us all and despite the current difficulties may we take this opportunity to wish you, your families and all your business colleagues the very best festive season possible and a healthy and successful year to come.
Ivan Savage
TTBS chief executive officer
