ABTA Lifeline

With the cost of living crisis and an increasing number of people seeking support from ABTA LifeLine, the charity will be launching its £2 per employee appeal in Marrakech and wants Members to get behind it.

Many people in travel were adversely impacted by the pandemic, especially those on reduced income due to furlough, the self-employed that didn’t qualify for income support, and those who lost their jobs. And now the industry is facing the cost of living crisis.

Trudie Clements, ABTA LifeLine Director, said:

“LifeLine is seeing an increasing number of people coming to us for support and advice. Many are worrying about how they are going to pay their bills, or wondering which bills they should pay first. Others are concerned about getting further into debt and how they are going to be able to feed their family.

“LifeLine has never more been needed, which is why the charity is asking all ABTA Members to support its £2 Per Employee Appeal. If every Member, no matter how big or small, joined the appeal, those pounds added together would make a real difference to colleagues and their families in a time of need.”

There are several different ways ABTA Members can take part:

• Donate £2 for every employee you have
• Do both by ‘match funding’ every £2 collected from employees
• Set up a payroll giving scheme for your employees
• Make a corporate donation.

To pledge your support, please contact tclements@abta.co.uk.

ABTA LifeLine is ABTA’s charity for past and present employees of ABTA Members. The charity provides support for the unexpected moments in life such as redundancy, relationship breakdown, accidents and bereavement among many other things.

It gives practical, financial and emotional assistance to travel colleagues that are really struggling, throwing them a LifeLine in their time of need.

ABTA – The Travel Association has responded to the Government’s Growth Plan.

Luke Petherbridge, Director of Public Affairs at ABTA – The Travel Association said:

“Today’s announcement is the first indication we’ve had from the new Government about their plans for the economy and public finances

“This is a Government focused on growth, which outbound travel businesses have a strong track record in delivering when supported by the right tax and policy framework.

“The plan does include some savings for business, such as the reversal of the 1.25% rise in National Insurance contributions, which was due in April 2023, and cancellation of the planned rise in corporation tax, and comes on the back of help outlined in the Energy Bill Relief Scheme which was announced on Wednesday.

“However, the Government could have gone much further with plans to support businesses beyond the current financial year, which would have benefited our Members. We strongly urge the Government to take the opportunity to use the full Budget statement to extend business rates relief support beyond April 2023, and to look at how Government could work with the banks to ease the pressure of COVID loan repayments.

“We’ll also be working to make the case to Government that the support with energy bills needs to be available to travel businesses beyond the initial six-month period, especially given travel restrictions were only removed in March 2022, and the industry is behind other sectors in terms of its recovery.”

We help our Members and their customers navigate through today’s changing travel landscape by raising standards in the industry; offering schemes of financial protection; providing an independent complaints resolution service should something go wrong; giving guidance on issues from sustainability to health and safety and by presenting a united voice to government to ensure the industry and the public get a fair deal.

ABTA has around 4,000 travel brands in Membership, providing a wide range of leisure and business travel services, with a combined pre-pandemic annual UK turnover of £40 billion. For more details about what we do, what being an ABTA Member means and how we help the UK public travel with confidence visit www.abta.com.

Meyrem Ali | Media and PR Officer
E: mali@abta.co.uk | T: +44 (0)203 117 0531| M: +44(0)7557 686 459 | | www.abta.com

ABTA Limited is a limited company registered in England and Wales with registered number 551311. Our registered office is at 30 Park Street, London, SE1 9EQ.

This email is intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender and delete the email (and any attachments) immediately; do not copy or disclose the information.

This email may contain information or legal advice which is privileged and therefore not disclosable to third parties or in court action.

Although ABTA Limited has taken reasonable precautions to ensure no viruses are present in this email, we cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage sustained as a result of computer viruses and you must check that the email (and any attachments) are virus free.

For information about how we process personal data, please see our Privacy Notice https://www.abta.com/privacy-notice.

ABTA Limited is following the Government’s measures and guidance aimed at reducing the transmission of COVID-19 and therefore most of our staff are working at home. Where you can, please communicate with us by email or by telephone as this will help us respond to you more quickly.