Bereaved families to receive £250,000 from We Love Manchester Emergency Fund
The fund has now reached £18m, with donations still coming in.
It's been revealed the families of the 22 victims killed in the terror attack at Manchester Arena are to receive £250,000 each in total, following a decision made by the charity's trustees.
It's an additional £180,000 to the £70,000 already distributed to family members who lost a loved one in the atrocity.
The payments will make sure the families affected by the horrific events of 22nd May 2017 benefit from the phenomenal outpouring of public support following the attack.
This latest round of payment will mean an additional £4m will be distributed from the Fund. Combined with earlier payments this will mean more than £9m will have been distributed, more than half of the current £18m total.
The money is a gift from the people of Manchester and the rest of the world and as such, there are no conditions to receiving the money. The Emergency Fund has also provided access to free financial counselling for the bereaved families.
The trustees will now decide how and when to distribute the rest of the money, including making awards to those who have been seriously injured by the attack.
Councillor Sue Murphy, chair of the trustees of the fund, said: “The city and the world responded with such extreme kindness, generosity and solidarity in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena attack.
“Thanks to this we have raised more than £18m and we were conscious that we had to get some of swiftly this to those with immediate needs.
“We have therefore given a around third of the total to the bereaved families and £3.5m to those who were hospitalised after the attack. In total this means we have allocated over half of the existing money already.
“We will now spend some time looking at how we will distribute the rest of the funds. This will be a complex and sensitive process as we will need to assess the long-term impacts of the attack. We will issue an update as soon as we know more.”
Flat rate payments had already been given to families of the bereaved, those who were in hospital for more than seven days, and those who were hospitalised overnight.