CUMBRIA Deaf Association has emerged from the Barclays ‘debanking’ saga, although they are not completely out of the woods yet.

 The small charity, which has banked with Barclays for 21 years, was thrown into a fight for survival after the banking chain closed its three accounts in October, forcing CEO Caroline Howsley to pay for staff salaries and charity outgoings from her savings.

More than £40,000 had been paid out of her pocket to keep the charity, which provides British Sign Language training to businesses and schools and BSL interpreters, afloat.

The charity disputed the bank's claim that they didn’t provide them with the information they required in a 'timely fashion' to keep the accounts open. 

Following national coverage, Barclays reopened the charity’s account on December 19, under the wing of a ‘dedicated customer account manager’, ensuring a smooth process going forward.

The banking group has also gifted £400 as a gesture of goodwill for the loss of banking.

“Once Barclays realised it was an issue, they have done everything within their remit to get the accounts up and running again,” Caroline said.

As of December, the charity had cheques totalling around £46,000 that could not be banked or invoices that could not be sent out.

“We’ve had to send invoices from September work that couldn’t go out until December 19, as we had no way for it to be paid in.

“We won’t be able to get the money personally back for another three to six months. The cash flow that is now coming in is having to go to staff up front.

“Hopefully by the end of the financial year we will have paid back my husband and I, and our chair,” Caroline said.

The ‘debanking’ chaos for the charity has had a ‘severe impact’ on the organisation’s goals, one of which was to open a branch in West Cumbria last October.

“Cumbrians have been fantastic in getting behind us. We’ve received donations from the community, the staff have been delivering everything with a smile.

“We had a Christmas party in the week before Barclays reopened the accounts.

"Everyone was smiling, happy and positive knowing that we would all get through this. That’s a real testament to the Cumbrian teamwork and spirit knowing that we would win.

“One of the good things to come out of it is that other charities and organisations have come forward and contacted me or had the confidence to back to Barclays and say this is wrong,” Caroline said.

A Barclays spokesperson said: “As part of our ongoing responsibility to help prevent financial crime, and to meet our regulatory obligations, we are required to keep up to date information regarding our customers’ accounts.

"In order to request this important information, we share a series of communications with our customers, including writing to them by post, and using alert banners on our digitally active customers’ online and mobile banking.

"It is vital that account holders respond to these requests from their bank. 

"We work hard to avoid the last resort of account closure, but we fully understand the issues it can cause customers, and in light of this we have offered to reopen the account to allow more time for the information to be shared.”

If you would be interested in donating to the charity, visit www.cumbriadeaf.org.uk/get-involved/donate/