Charity suspended for three months

An Alzheimer’s charity has been suspended from receiving
donations, two years after a Charity Commission investigation found
evidence of misconduct in an allegedly related organisation.

The Financial Services Authority has suspended the Alzheimer’s
Association from its register of industrial and provident societies
for three months for failing in its charitable remit.

The association is believed to have connections with the
Alzheimer’s Foundation, which
was in effect taken over by the Charity Commission in January 2003
after an investigation found that,
of nearly £550,000 raised, it had spent less than £65,000
on charitable activities.

The Alzheimer’s Association has been forbidden from operating as
a charity, must not receive donations or grants and will only be
reinstated if it can prove its charitable purpose when its
suspension ends.

The Alzheimer’s Society, the UK’s largest dementia charity,
welcomed the news saying the matter had caused its members “great
concern”.