2025-03-31-accounts - Joint Council For The Welfare Of Immigrants

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Charity number: 1117513 Company number: 02700424

JCWI

Joint Council for the

Welfare of Immigrants

Annual Report for the year ending 31 March 2025

Contents PURPOSE AND ACTIVITIES .................................................................................... 2 WORK, ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE ........................................................ 5 FUTURE PLANS .................................................................................................. 20 FINANCIAL REVIEW ............................................................................................ 22 STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT................................................. 24 REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS ........................................................ 28 DECLARATIONS ................................................................................................. 30 AUDITOR'S OPINION…………………………………………………………………………………….31 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS……………………………………………………………………………...36

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

PURPOSE AND ACTIVITIES

OUR OBJECTS According to our Articles of Association

to relieve poverty among immigrants, in particular but not exclusively by the provision of advice, counsel, assistance and representation
to advance education and training on the law and related subjects in particular law that may affect immigrants;
to promote the human rights arising under or by virtue of the Human Rights Act 1998 and the promotion of the Convention Rights as defined by s.1 Human Rights Act
to promote equality and diversity in the United Kingdom and in particular, but not limited to, the elimination of discrimination on the grounds of race, sex or national origin

OUR VISION

A society in which people can live safely and are treated with equal dignity and respect, regardless of where they are from or how they came to the UK.

OUR MISSION

We support people to have fulfilling lives in the UK. We challenge racist and discriminatory policies and rhetoric on immigration and educate our communities to create systemic change and improve the lives of people who move, whether they move by force or by choice.

OUR ACTIVITIES

We provide high quality legal advice and information to people making the UK their home. We strengthen the movement working to improve the lives of people who move, by amplifying grassroots groups and challenging the establishment.

We use law, advocacy, and the media to respond to and challenge damaging and discriminatory immigration policies and to challenge dominant narratives about migration.

We work as a team to make JCWI a happy, resilient, and rewarding place to work

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

MESSAGE FROM THE TRUSTEES

Dear friends,

As we reflect on the past year in our 2024-2025 annual report, we must first acknowledge the immense grief, anger and pain many of us are carrying into this moment. We have continued to experience the surge in fascist and imperialist violence in our communities and on our doorsteps. The far-right have become increasingly emboldened by the political and media class, who in turn manufacture consent for more violent bordering in the UK, making migrant and racialised communities materially unsafe in their homes and on our streets. Internationally we have seen worsening climate degradation and millions displaced, murdered, and dispossessed from their lands in Gaza, Congo and Sudan, forcing people on the move into further precarity and exploitation. Whilst political leaders compete over who can implement the cruellest border controls and espouse the most racist, Islamophobic and transphobic rhetoric and laws, we all continue to face worsening conditions, as workers, as renters and as communities. Whilst the global majority struggles to make ends meet, private companies line their pockets by keeping people seeking asylum in dilapidated hotels, corporations and airlines profiteer off an expanding detention and deportation regime, and we see the ongoing demonisation and criminalisation of migrant workers which enables extractive and exploitive labour practices. It has also been deplorable to see this Government livestream and boast of its cruelty, by filming people being detained at immigration raids or deported from the UK.

But despite this hostile and worsening political climate, JCWI has stood firm alongside our comrades and communities in the migrant justice and anti-racist movement, to show meaningful and collective solidarity, resistance and action against those who seek to oppress us. We have secured major legal wins for people held in colonial and militarised detention in Diego Garcia, seeing them finally able to access safety in the UK. We have supported people fleeing war, persecution and climate breakdown across the Global South to become parts of our communities. We have remained bold and unwavering in our campaigns, communications and advocacy work, to defend the rights of all people who move to the UK, whether for safety, work, study or to be with their loved ones.

As JCWI continues to grow and learn internally, we have reaffirmed and strengthened our commitment to our core values, at a time when solidarity, justice and creativity are the lifeblood of our movement. This has not been without its hardships, within a shrinking funding landscape and the relentless demands on us to remain constantly reactive in an increasingly

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

hostile environment. However, the workers and communities who sustain JCWI, including our Lived Experience Advisory Board and our clients, whose expertise and sharp insights ground and guide us through a complex landscape, has allowed us all to strive towards transformative changes in the UK’s asylum and immigration systems. We know the road ahead is long and the fight against fascism is one we must all confront head on. But in the words of Ruth Wilson Gilmore, “Abolition is about presence, not absence. It’s about building life-affirming institutions.” In this vein, we remain committed to ensuring JCWI does exactly this.

We extend our thanks and deepest solidarity to everyone who has supported and contributed to our work over the past year: every trust and foundation, every grassroots fundraiser, everyone who has amplified us online, every person who has materially sustained us through donations, and all the coalitions, activists and allies who have taken part in our actions. We remain in admiration of our staff, for their tireless and endless dedication to making JCWI a site of meaningful change, and of course to our clients, for their boundless fortitude, resilience and defiance. We will also be guided by those in our movement who face the sharpest edges of Britain’s bordering and policing, particularly political prisoners, imprisoned climate activists and all those in immigration detention.

We know, to paraphrase Audre Lorde, that we cannot be a single-issue organisation because we do not live single issue lives. We only need to look to JCWI’s own history to remember that when we were founded in 1967 at the Dominion Cinema in Southhall, Black and South Asian communities were defending themselves from the National Front as well as increasing border controls. We were able to find our collective power then and we must do so again now. Therefore, we will continue to situate JCWI’s work for migrant justice within an everexpanding people-powered movement, to ensure our friends, families and neighbours can enjoy fulfilling lives and futures and to ultimately achieve liberation for all.

In solidarity,

The JCWI Board of Trustees

STATEMENT ON PUBLIC BENEFIT

The trustees of JCWI have given due regard to the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008, Charities Act, and Charities Commission guidance on reporting public benefit in the exercising of all duties during the financial year. The achievements and activities below demonstrate the public benefit arising through the Charity's activities.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

WORK, ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

At JCWI we fight for a fairer, more humane migration system in the UK, challenging injustice, mobilising powerful public campaigns, advocating for policy change, using press and social media to shift the narrative on migration, and working with others to centre the voices of those with lived experience.

In April 2024 we held an event to launch a new JCWI Manifesto : We Move: a manifesto for migrant justice, our five-point vision towards migrant justice through rights, safety, dignity, justice & community. The manifesto was produced in collaboration with our brilliant Lived Experience Advisory Board, and designed by the talented @blkmoodyboi.

Organizations like JCWI play a vital role by supporting and campaigning for access to training and education. Their efforts are not just brilliant; they are the seeds of hope.

A member of the advisory board who worked on the strategy

We provide high-quality legal advice and information to support people making the UK their home.

Legal advice and representation

The year 2024/25 saw our team undertaking powerful legal work: this year we advised and represented 211 clients with many of our successful outcomes continuing to be for those facing deportation, whose claims are often the hardest to secure representation for and to succeed in.

We advised 751 people through our Irregular Migrants Helpline (IML) , a vital resource that offers undocumented migrants or those with insecure immigration status free, confidential and anonymous legal advice and guidance on immigration and asylum

matters. It enables people to take forward their immigration cases, regularise their status, and move up out of poverty and exploitation into secure and settled lives. Where there is a particular need, we assist callers with pro bono applications including filing complex appeals and judicial reviews – such as a caller whose visa had been revoked, allegedly because he was working over 20 hours a week. The Home Office subsequently cleared the employer of providing work over 20 hours, but did not reinstate the caller's visa - rather it detained him

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following a dawn raid. The caller had lodged his own judicial review claim challenging this, which had been refused permission. We represented him pro bono in the judicial review, which has now been granted permission to proceed.

Through our Irregular Migrant Helpline, we also provide people with advice on making fee waiver applications, enabling them and their communities to overcome the arbitrary hurdle of prohibitively high application fees, and make informed choices around their immigration status.

We provided responded to advice requests from 653 UNISON members, approximately 30 members a week – the need for this has risen enormously since this service began, reflecting government policy changes targeting migrant workers. These changes have left those who entered the UK with work visas either without leave, in situations of precarity leading to destitution, and or exploitation by employers.

We held fortnightly advice surgeries at the Red Cross Destitution Centre, advising 84 people subject to trafficking and gender based violence .

We advised people in detention at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre . We secured bail for every person we acted for. We took on all elements of their cases including urgent representation for individuals with Notices of Intent for removal under the previous Government plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. We fought their cases, got them off the planes, and won refugee status to recognise what they have been through .

I just want to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude—first to God Almighty, and then to you and your incredible team at JCWI. From the very start of my asylum journey, you have stood by me with unwavering support, kindness, and dedication.

Your hard work, commitment, and belief in my case have not only given me hope but have also changed my life in ways I cannot fully express. You and your team will always hold a special place in my heart, and my story would not be complete without acknowledging the profound impact you’ve had on it. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for everything. I will always be grateful.

E.E., A client who we have been helping with his asylum claim

We continued to provide holistic support for our clients, challenging asylum support delays and failures, and supporting our clients to access welfare and health care . Uniquely, JCWI has a support worker embedded in the legal team, and the majority of her work this year has been preventing clients from becoming homeless, finding emergency

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

accommodation, making homelessness applications for those released from detention onto the street, and supporting people with longer term housing solutions. We use our Migrant Defense Fund to provide accommodation for brief periods while clients await decisions on asylum support applications, delays and challenges, without which they would be street homeless.

We have found housing for those with no recourse to public funds – such as an unwell refugee and her two adult children seeking asylum, who was not eligible to stay in her accommodation. In spite of this our Support Worker helped her to get accommodation and pushed the council to accept a duty to house her and her family.

Asylum seeker accommodation and migrant homelessness is an issue that comes up over and over in our casework. These cases reflect the wider realities for migrants in the UK: housing insecurity and homelessness is a core challenge. We turn our direct experience into campaign action to change the system. We’ve been working with Refugee Action, NACCOM and Asylum Matters on this, including co-signing a letter to the Home and Communities Secretaries calling for a new approach to the way people seeking asylum are housed. We seek to end the use of mass accommodation sites such as Epping, Wethersfield and Scampton and move instead towards a locally led approach to housing people in communities. We also worked with the Large Agents Representation Group, Shelter, Generation Rent, the NRLA and others on the issue of Right to Rent, seeking to scrap it in the Renters Reform Bill.

We use law, advocacy, and the media to respond to and challenge damaging and discriminatory immigration policies and to challenge dominant narratives about migration.

Challenging injustice: litigation and advocacy

We challenge injustice and change policy through our legal casework.

We have been representing a group of Tamils from Sri Lanka and India who in September 2021 fled political persecution by boat. They were taken in when their boat began to flood and landed on the Chagos Islands as a result, where they claimed asylum. The Chagos islands are a UK colony but the area is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention. We have been acting in their protection claims and claims for unlawful detention. The UK handed over sovereignty to Mauritius (though it will be leased back to the UK for the US-UK military

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

base for at least 99 years). Immigration lawyers from a number of organisations including JCWI went there to represent and safeguard clients at risk of suicide and self-harm due to the conditions. In December 2024, after 38 cruel months, and an unceasing fight, they arrived in the UK – to the open arms of their friends and the lawyers who helped make that freedom possible. We saw them hug as humans, brought together by a common love of liberation, not lawyer and client. A new beginning and a reminder that colonisation and migration are inexorably bound together.

JCWI’s legal team was pivotal in a Supreme Court case with far-reaching implications for

children forced into statelessness . In the case, a child was born during the time their father was subject to a citizenship deprivation order. The father appealed the decision, arguing it had made him stateless and so the decision was in breach of international law. The government was eventually forced to accept the father’s arguments that he continued to hold British citizenship but would not accept that the child was also a British citizen. The case was appealed and JCWI intervened. Counsel Amanda Weston KC considered our intervention pivotal to its success: with the appeal unanimously allowed by all 5 Supreme Court judges.

In 2024 we won a policy and process amendment to stop a Catch 22 in the Home Office’s bail and accommodation provision system which was preventing migrants who are not asylum seekers from obtaining accommodation from the Home Office whilst their cases were pending after having been released from immigration detention. The way that the policy was being implemented resulted in people being kept detained, or being left homeless upon release. We challenged this and won a policy change so that when you are applying for this kind of accommodation you can now tick a box in the application form to request to have your bail residence condition automatically amended so that the Home Office can grant accommodation. This will result in more people being able to be released from detention without becoming homeless.

We increase access to justice . The crisis in legal aid funding has resulted in legal aid deserts, where those who need it are unable to access legal representation. This is a key access to justice concern and we have campaigned on it with other legal advice providers. This year, alongside submitting evidence to the Ministry of Justice Review of Civil Legal Aid, we met with the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) on a range of issues including asylum interviews, legal aid and access to justice, the hostile environment, and detention. In September 2024 we put together a joint briefing along with Migrants Organise and co-signed by 66 others, about the crisis in immigration legal aid,

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

which was sent to all MPs in September – and in November 2024 the government announced a rise in legal aid rates, a real victory for the campaign .

We continue to fight the cases of people impacted by Windrush and to take part in the Windrush Justice Coalition. This year we celebrated a client’s successful application for registration as British: his father lost his British citizenship on independence so could not pass it on to the client; his mother was Scottish but as a woman could not pass this on. Provisions in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 created a new route to registration for those in the client's position affected by the historic injustice of a mother’s inability to transmit citizenship, but it was only after the intense perseverance of our Legal Assistant in the face of the numerous practical barriers which still exist, that our client was able finally to register as British.

I'm sitting here, speechless! Very emotional, THANK you, everyone at JCWI! I even shed a tear, 44 years in the making!

Brian Samuel, the client in the Windrush case, whose father, Darwin Samuel, was a founding Board Member of JCWI!

Changing policy: advocacy & campaigns

We dismantle the hostile environment through political advocacy, building relationships with parliament, government, and local authorities to and promote progressive alternatives.

We spoke at key events:

A cabinet office roundtable meeting with Minister Abena Oppong-Asare, the Red Cross, Mind, the Local Government Association, Faith Action and others, discussing the Government’s emergency responses, including to Covid-19, and their impact on migrants. We raised that trust and communication are key: policies such as NHS charging and data-sharing mean that some communities have no trust; and key documents weren’t translated into community languages until months into the pandemic
An Influencing Parliament and legislation webinar: a guide for grassroots groups on the UK parliament and how to influence it with parliamentary questions, debates and Private Members’ Bills

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

A Westminster Legal Policy Forum event on the future of immigration policy chaired by Baroness Hamwe, with an audience of around 250 stakeholders including MPs, senior government and regulatory officials as well as those with lived experience of UK immigration. We raised how government policy on migration undermines policy priorities in other areas – for example, data-sharing about migrant workers prioritises immigration control over the eradication of workplace exploitation.

We held our own MP briefing event in Parliament , ‘Our Immigration System: What you need to know’ to equip new and established MPs with the tools and knowledge they need to advance migrants' rights under a new Government, with a member of our Lived Experience Advisory Board as chair. We invited grassroots groups we partner with to attend and speak , smaller detention organisations were able to hold stalls there, as part of our work bringing smaller and grassroots groups into spaces and positions of power enabling them to influence government directly.

We are Core Participants in the COVID inquiry : along with Doctors of the World UK, Kanlungan, Medact and others, giving evidence on the impact of COVID on society, and in particular on migrants. In January 2025 our collective of migrant organisations testified at the Covid Inquiry through the Public Interest Law Centre.

We prevented deportations to Rwanda and led the movement against it . The Safety of Rwanda Act, passed into law in April 2024, essentially forced decision makers to treat Rwanda as a ‘safe third country’ to which people seeking safety in the UK could be removed. Having led a cross-sector campaign against the Bill in 2023-24, when it came into force we led 250 charities, campaign groups and organisations in an open letter to then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemning this assault on asylum seekers and migrants . At the same time our Migrant Champions Network mobilised against the Rwanda detentions, with 188 councillors across the country signing a joint statement urging Government to respect the November 2023 Supreme Court decision that Rwanda was not guaranteed to be safe for asylum seekers.

The Home Office started to detain people seeking asylum ahead of planned flights to Rwanda, so we put out an explainer for people who might be affected to understand their rights, along with a template letter they could use to seek extensions of time to respond, with a view to judicial review challenges should their request be refused.

It was this collective cross-sector campaign that meant that when Labour came to power, one of the first things they did was scrap the Rwanda plan . In March 2025 our last remaining client who had been detained for Rwanda removal was granted refugee status,

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

and in April in response to JCWI’s Judicial Review the Home Office finally published the guidance confirming they discontinue inadmissibility action for all those previously liable to removal to Rwanda, meaning their asylum claims will be processed in the UK.

Our We Are Here campaign for undocumented migrants promotes the rights of undocumented migrants and develops progressive, pragmatic alternatives to the Hostile Environment, informed by the knowledge we gain from our casework.

We are working with academics at Birmingham University on a Pan-European research project developing new policy for irregularised migrant households in states across Europe. This year we worked with them on research into the situation of irregular migrant workers in the food delivery and domestic care sectors, using our role as a convener and coalescer to bring migrant workers in as stakeholders with key insights for the project.

In July 2024 we signed a joint letter coordinated by Asylum Matters calling on the new Prime Minister to take urgent action to fix our broken asylum system . 300 organisations and over 500 individuals have signed the joint public letter, which is published online here. The letter was also covered by the Guardian.

In September 2024 we coordinated a joint letter from over 30 NGOs refusing to be complicit in the Home Office's attempts to remove migrants from our communities which was covered by the Guardian and connected up activists across the UK concerned about the Home Office's new 'community engagement' workshops.

Our Work It Out campaign for Migrant Workers uses coalition building and political advocacy to bring the voices of those we work with to policy and decision-making spaces, ensuring that the policies that affect migrants and those with experience of migration better respond to their needs and reflect a fairer approach to migration.

We along with Regularise and Migrants at Work bring together large and small unions and grassroots groups working on migrant workers’ rights , using our position as a “bridging organisation” to support the latter with access to trade unions who have in the past not heard their voices. The first meeting took place in August 2024 with 23 attendees, and was the start of a of long term collaboration. In December we spoke at the TUC’s Racial Justice and Equality conference on the opportunities (and potential risks) from the Employments Rights Bill and how, with the new government promising to ‘Make Work Pay’, we can claim rights for migrant workers, combat discrimination and reshape the narrative on

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

migration. We are working closely with Unison: through our bespoke adviceline we bring out the issues facing their migrant members.

We bring the expertise of the migrant groups we work with to politicians directly: Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s team requested a policy proposal from us on safe reporting for migrant workers, which we developed with FLEX, Work Rights Centre and LAWRS. We provided MP briefings on the Employment Rights Bill, on the need for safe reporting mechanisms that allow migrant workers to report exploitative treatment without risking visa status, on migrant healthcare worker visas, bridging visas, and abolishing the illegal working offence.

Our Climate Migration Justice project seeks just and fair policy solutions to climate-induced migration led by those most impacted: we have given legal advice for 12 people displaced by climate breakdown navigating the asylum and immigration systems and provided written advice to other legal representatives on how best to argue their cases on climate migration grounds.

We worked with the Climate Justice Coalition , a collective of migrant and climate groups working to strengthen connections between the two sectors. The organising group includes JCWI, Global Justice Now, XR, Migrants Organise, War on Want, Just Stop Oil, and Tipping Point and focuses on public engagement with climate change.

With the CJC we put together the first ever Climate Migration Justice day on 22 November 2024 – which will become an annual event, and in January 2025 we ran a Climate Migration Justice summit with over 100 organisations spanning the climate migration and social justice sectors : a 2 day in-person intersectional movement building event for climate and migrant groups across the country to meet, mobilise, and strategise. JCWI delivered sessions on intersection in practice: embedding migrant and racial justice into climate campaigning, and on connecting climate justice and migration policy. Since then, we have worked with City of Sanctuary UK ambassadors on ways City of Sanctuary UK can embed Climate Justice into their work, and spoken at the People & Planet summit Power Shift alongside speakers from War on Want, Tipping Point, ILPS, and Debt for Climate, discussing the intersection of climate and migration.

We are message testing and developing our presence in the climate campaign space. We have been putting out social media content making the connection between climate change and migrant justice, and monitoring how our messages land, especially with followers of climate organisations. Our project officer Yazan speaks at demonstrations and we amplify his voice through social media.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Shifting the narrative: communications and media

We took opportunities to speak out and influence the public on migration issues , with:

45 quotes (including the Guardian, Independent, BBC, CNN, Metro, Big Issue)
nearly 50 broadcast appearances (including BBC News, Channel 4 News, Channel 5 News, LBC, BBC Radio London)
13 opinion pieces written by our spokespeople in The Metro, Big Issue, Huck, LBC, Morning Star

In January 2025 Civil Society ran a profile piece on our Executive Director Yasmin on how we ’ fight for those who don t have a voice. We are seen as a credible source of information for news media ranging from the BBC, who quoted us on migrant workers pushed into destitution, to LBC, with whom we ran an Op-ed on the scapegoating of migrants, to inews, who quoted our Legal Director on the proposed new deal between the UK and France, to the Big Issue who quoted us on the reality of the choices available to migrants and refugees coming to the UK and the people impacted by the new Government’s rule preventing citizenship.

We had a strong media response to the fall of Assad in Syria, with a staff member, Yazan, interviewed by Context on his personal experience, and our Co-Legal Director speaking out in the Big Issue on the Government reaction. By intervening in the public debate at these key moments of opportunity and providing a credible voice of truth we work to move public opinion into gradually more progressive waters.

We believe in a positive approach, and we create opportunities for our spokespeople to articulate and promote progressive reform, ranging from an Op-ed in Hyphen online on what Prime Minister Starmer could do to resolve channel crossings, and one in the Big Issue on how Labour can fix the UK's legal aid scandal to an article in the Metro using Paddington Bear to challenge the Government on how they could improve the asylum system, and featuring in an Al Jazeera news report on how Europe should deal with what they call its “migration crisis”.

We also ran a powerful pilot programme to counter disinformation, led by digital strategies that targeted communities most at risk in UK. The campaign reached over one million people on Facebook.

We used our huge public platform to share clients’ stories, platform their voices, and raise

their concerns , challenging dominant narratives and influencing politicians through our media work. For example we shared the story of a client from Iraq and her experience of the

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

asylum system. Our reaction to the news of more immigration raids received strong engagement with 22,000 views. Our reaction to the closing of the Bibby Stockholm barge was widely shared with 25,000 views. We were one of the only charities to publicly call out the former governments deportation flight to Vietnam, gaining 16,000 views.

We expanded and energised a base of support for positive change in immigration . Our membership grew to 700 members, and a video of our immigration lawyer challenging MPs at a Channel 4 debate reached more than 3 million people. On X (formerly Twitter) we posted more than 300 updates, gaining an average of 30,000 views in a week and 2.3 million across the year. We have continued to invest in accessible and visual storytelling: we posted 85 videos on Instagram , engaging tens of thousands- sometimes hundreds of thousands of people every month, and when we spoke out against PM Starmer’s rule preventing people who have arrived by irregular means becoming citizens - our Instagram post had over 1,000 likes. Our short-form videos across Instagram and TikTok reached a combined audience of over 3 and a half million , sharing legal advice, campaign messages and stories of hope and solidarity.

Our focus on meaningful engagement and storytelling has helped us build deeper connections with our audience and partner organisations, while the growth in our membership and audience shows we are reaching more people and building support, and by taking up the debate in spaces where many of the audience don’t share the same views as us we work to engage with them and spread progressive, anti-racist, pro-migrant messaging which will have a greater impact in the long-term.

These numbers reflect our impact: in a digital space increasingly shaped by misinformation and hostility, JCWI continues to create focus on fighting misinformation through facts and fight for the rights of migrants through amplifying the voices of those most affected by the UK’s hostile environment.

We were at the forefront of the response to racist rioting in August 2025 , supporting our clients in asylum accommodation at risk of attack, including a young woman who fled from persecution in Iraq to find safety here – and instead was terrified that her hotel would be the next target.

We organised a letter bringing together over 100 front-line legal advice organisations demanding the Government drop the racist rhetoric in the wake of the far-right violence, review asylum accommodation contracts for accommodation in abysmal and unsafe conditions, and shift to resourcing local authorities to house people seeking asylum in communities. During that outbreak of racism and violence, we ensured our voice and those

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

of the communities affected were in the media, correcting harmful narratives, in print and broadcast including national and regional platforms: in that week we reached over 25,000 views on social media, and received powerful responses to our Twitter threads calling the riots out as the result of decades of racist rhetoric, and our protest advice for counterprotesters was shared widely.

The Migrants Champions Network worked with councillors across the country to put together a message of solidarity and a practical guide on what they can do to protect and advocate for their migrant constituents and other racialised, faith-identified communities.

In January 2025 our Communications Director, Ravishaan Rahel Muthiah gave evidence to the Select Committee for Science, Innovation and Technology for their Inquiry on ‘Social media, misinformation and harmful algorithms’. Rav made many important points, including that while social media had magnified the messages of the far-right, the roots lie in decades of hostile environment policy by successive governments and the actions of mainstream media and politicians. Rav’s powerful contribution to the Select Committee was covered by the BBC Radio 4’s Today in Parliament programme and tweeted out by the Commons Committee’s social media. You can read about this contribution on our website and watch the full session in on our YouTube account here.

We strengthen the movement working to improve the lives of people who move, by amplifying grassroots groups and challenging the establishment.

We provided training to 500 people

This year we empowered communities to act for themselves , take forward their cases and fight for the issues that matter to them by providing training and webinars to 500 people covering issues like how to apply for fee waivers, the Article 8 right to private life, and the 20-year route to establishing regularity, alongside OISC exam training. We gave workshops to communities facing specific issues, including to Tajik Pamiri and to Sri Lankan Tamil communities. By providing workshops specifically directed at particular communities, we aim to build the knowledge and access to justice available to those communities. We put together and publicly launched an Access to Justice toolkit, translated into community languages including Arabic, Amharic, Tamil and Urdu, to help individuals navigate accessing immigration advice, to understand why legal aid is in crisis, and to get involved in creating the change that is so desperately needed.

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In December 2024, we spoke at Unison’s migrant member network webinar to recognise International Day of the Migrant Worker. It had over 100 members in attendance, with many members talking about their Unison participation and activism and the next steps for the network.

We are movement builders

We drive coalitions and stand on the steering committee of the Human Rights Coalition, the 180-organisation strong Migration Coalition, Detention Forum and the sector network Together with Refugees . By working in cross-sector coalitions we strengthen the migrant justice and anti-racist movements, bring together individuals facing the challenges of being undocumented and grassroots organisations campaigning on their behalf, and use our powerful advocacy and public campaigns to challenges the issues that face our clients. In January 2024, we participated in a roundtable on racial justice and migration hosted by Migrant Rights Network and Runnymede, and saw the launch of their research report to which JCWI contributed evidence.

We amplified the work of our grassroots partners including NACCOM’s report on refugee homelessness, Migrant Voice’s digital action on e-visas, Care for Calais’s MP tool on the change to the “good character” requirement, and Regularise’s petition on shortening residency timelines for citizenship, via our social media channels.

We worked with grassroots diaspora and campaign groups to build capacity and confidence when working with decision makers, supporting briefings on climate for local groups, working in collaboration with Disabled People’s Organisations on disability and migrant rights, In July 2024 we attended Queer Migrant Pride , an annual event which was particularly powerful this year, as we gave individual legal advice and ran group workshops on advocacy and media skills. The event had 230 attendees, 82% of whom rated the day 10/10 and 100% said they'd come again next year.

We built connections and frequently recommended grassroots organisations and partners for journalists to talk to, for example, Young Roots who support young refugees, or Samphire who work with people as they arrive in the UK. We worked across the migration sector, drafting joint letters for cross-sector responses and multi-partner work, and supporting smaller partners with less media experience to draft and release public statements and to promote their work, along with offering journalistic contacts. After being approached by Kalayaan, our Media and Communications manager advised them on how to pitch a report to engage public views and gave a list of journalists to contact. We then

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amplified their content on our social media channels.

Migrant Champions Network

The MCN is a network of local councillors committed to ensuring supporting all residents , regardless of immigration status. The Migrant Champions Network website provides resources to councillors to help them support migrant residents, to push for better policies within their local council and to join up with other councillors to campaign for migrants' rights nationally. We send monthly newsletters to a Migrant Champions Network mailing list with over 700 subscribers , sharing campaign actions and information about new resources and events.

Councillors signed up as Migrant Champions have provided individual casework support to migrant constituents on a range of issues, for example to asylum-seeking residents with their asylum appeal, to residents seeking to resist moving asylum accommodation, to those looking to settle locally on the council housing process, and to many on where to access legal advice.

In June 2024 we ran a briefing session for councillors on the UK’s immigration system and how to advocate for migrants’ rights as a councillor, and we turned a recording of the session into a training video as a resource.

We have supported campaigns on specific issues: in October 2024 we put together a digital tool to support residents to write to their councillors urging their local authority to instil a firewall between labour enforcement and the Home Office – which would enable migrant workers to report exploitative employers without risk of repercussions for them.

In October 2024 we ran two 3-hour media training sessions for councillors across the country on messaging, dealing with questions from journalists and constituents on resource scarcity, particularly relating to access to housing, and how to guide the conversation back to core values.

In February 2025 the Migrant Champions Network produced a model motion on refugee citizenship laying out the impact of barring people from citizenship and calling on the Home Secretary to immediately restore the route to citizenship for all refugees, establish genuine safe routes, and ensure the rights and dignity of migrants are respected.

In February we ran an in-person Iftar attended by local councillors from across the UK to share a meal and discuss issues that are coming up in their casework. A key theme that came up throughout discussions was the rise of the far right, and the role that progressive

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

councillors from across parties can play in tackling this by having difficult but necessary conversations on the doorstep. Feedback from the event was incredibly positive, ranging from “Our diversity is our strength” to “So so lovely to see you all and thank you so much for all your work organising. You all give me hope”.

In March 2025 in advance of the local council elections, the Network co-drafted a pledge for local councillors to commit to representing everyone in their communities. We sent this out to subscribers on the Migrant Champion’s Network mailing list, connected up with the Local Government Association and published a piece in Labour Hub about the Network.

the Crossborder Forum

JCWI hosts an independent network of over 60 civil society organisations and activists in Belgium, France, and the UK, the Forum brings together campaigners to share expertise and develop joint campaigns and actions on migration and asylum issues at the border. Decisions are made by an Advisory Committee made up of several members of the Forum, with at least one representative from each of the 3 countries, and the work is delivered by a Crossborder Forum Manager at JCWI.

2024 was the deadliest year yet on record for deaths of those crossing the Channel, with at least 89 people known to have been killed at the border. In November, the Crossborder Forum put together a joint statement on Channel deaths . It marks the third anniversary of a shipwreck that killed at least 29 people on November 24th 2021, and we also supported an event in Dunkirk to commemorate the deaths , and submitted a witness statement to the Cranston Inquiry into what happened, coordinating through our Crossborder Forum to include activists across the UK, France and Belgium.

In 2024 members of the Advisory Committee gave learning sessions on the UK government’s ‘Rwanda Bill’ and the EU’s Pact on Asylum and Migration , shared information and resources on policy developments in UK and Belgium, requests from journalists, and gathered testimonies on criminalisation across the countries. At the start of 2025, the Crossborder Forum ran a learning session on criminalisation of people crossing the Channel, including a speaker with lived experience of criminalisation, and another on police violence in northern France.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

We work as a team to make JCWI a happy, resilient, and rewarding place to work by sharing knowledge, collaborating across the organisation, and implementing the policies and practices we need to manage our resources effectively.

We fundraise to support our work – this year our digital fundraiser to help us fight antimigrant hate raised £8,315, a huge testament to public support for our work

The charity’s work has made a huge difference to the circumstances of its beneficiaries

and to society as a whole : we work with those directly impacted by injustice and in coalition with grassroots groups and others campaigning on migrants rights. We challenge injustice, change policy, and intervene in the public debate. Our work has never been more important, and we remain deeply committed to our communities.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

FUTURE PLANS

At JCWI we challenge injustice at a ground level and bring legal expertise from our casework to inform our policy development and influencing, drive powerful public campaigns and create media messaging that cuts to the core of migrant justice. This year we will:

• Challenge injustice through representation and strategic litigation

Demand for legal support is growing as hostile policies intensify. Our casework changes lives for those we work with and creates precedents and policy change that have farreaching, long-term impacts bringing justice for migrants across the UK. We will continue to challenge discriminatory policies that underpin racist immigration policy; securing detention release and immigration status in difficult cases; and campaigning to expand legal aid to ensure access to justice. Our casework insights will inform our policy development as we build and promote positive alternatives.

• Our political advocacy will hold the Government to account and change policy

We will push back against the Nationality and Borders Act; Illegal Migration Act; The Border Security, Immigration and Asylum Act; and the Immigration White Paper 'Restoring Control over the Immigration System', attempts to make routes to settlement longer and harder; attack refugee family reunion; the inhumane deportation of asylum seekers and trafficking victims as part of the UK-France agreement; and ongoing policy changes. We will build strong relationships with MPs across parties to promote policies to enable migrants to access rights, justice, housing, healthcare, and work.

• We will campaign for migrant and racial justice, and for systemic change:

Our approach transforms crisis response into structural change through integrated campaigns that address root causes rather than symptoms. The asylum accommodation crisis, far-right protests targeting hotels housing asylum seekers, and divisive political messaging demonstrate how discriminatory policies fuel social division whilst leaving vulnerable people without proper support or pathways to settlement. In this context of significant disruption, campaigns for progressive migration policy becomes essential infrastructure for social cohesion and security for those we support.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

• We will lead the movement for migration justice

We will lead and participate in cross-sector coalitions including the Migration Coalition, Human Rights Coalition, Together With Refugees, Crossborder Forum, Climate Justice Coalition, Disability And Migration Network, Detention Forum, and PICUM, bringing migrant-led groups to the fore to drive the movement for racial and migrant justice forward. Through the Crossborder Forum we will enable organisations across the UK, France and Belgium to fight border violence, and through our Migrant Champions Network we will empower councillors across the country to support migrants in their constituencies. We will lead the Climate Migration Justice movement for the recognition of climate refugees.

• We will support our communities, ensuring those most affected lead the solutions.

We will prioritise working in solidarity with grassroots organisations and people with lived experience to build campaigning capacity and influence decision makers, and we will build alliances within and beyond the migrants’ rights sector, to grow the movement for migrant and racial justice. We will support directly affected communities to advocate for their rights at a local and national level.

• We will intervene in public debate for progressive migration narrative:

We will counter racist and violent narratives through media and press engagement; expanding our social media reach to challenge hate narratives. We will elevate the voices of those affected by immigration system: supporting migrants and grassroots groups to lead calls for change in mainstream media; and enabling spokespeople including clients to share experiences and challenge damaging narratives about migration and the discriminatory policies they create. We will engage supporters in public-facing campaigns and action on migrant justice, and seek to influence the wider public.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

FINANCIAL REVIEW

During the year the Charity’s income amounted to £1,466,308 and expenditure to £1,436,276, leaving a surplus for the year ended 31 March 2025 of £30,032. As at the yearend accounts showed total funds of £657,756, of which £249,320 was restricted. The reserves held in unrestricted funds, which have not been designated or invested in fixed assets, at 31st of March 2025 were £373,688. Our only designated fund is what we call our 'Migrant Defence Fund' designated by Trustees to provide subsistence to clients who need it e.g. emergency accommodation, food, clothes, and support for pregnant women.

Our reserves are a combination of cash in bank, which is available, and income claimable from the Legal Aid Agency, which is not immediately accessible to us, or which once claimed may come through in the following months – often crossing from one accounting period to the next.

We ended the financial year with a surplus, therefore an increase to our reserves from March 2024. This is mainly in the form of WIP (Work in Progress – i.e. income claimable from the Legal Aid Agency), while our cash in bank decreased. This reflects a difficult funding landscape and strategic decisions to maintain service delivery and capitalise on key advocacy opportunities during crucial political moments, including bringing the sector together to campaign successfully against the Rwanda policy, mobilising against the rise of the racist far-right, and pushing back against attempts to effectively close all routes to seeking asylum in the UK.

PRINCIPLE FUNDING SOURCES

JCWI has four main sources of funding:

Grants from Trusts and Foundations
Legal Casework and Advice lines
Public Fundraising
Membership, Training, and Merchandise

We are grateful to our funders for their continued support for and belief in our work and our vision.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

We are committed to fair, honest, and open fundraising and are grateful to our funders for their continued support for and belief in our work and our vision. We follow the Fundraising Regulator’s Code of Fundraising Practice.

Investment Powers and Policy

Under the Memorandum and Articles of Association, the charity has the power to make any investment which the trustees see fit. The trustees must consider the most appropriate policy for investing funds and consider that cash deposits meet our requirements.

RESERVES POLICY

The minimum reserves level approved by the Board is that both the measures of cash and unrestricted reserves less restricted reserves (less WIP) should be equal to between three and six months of budgeted expenses.

The Trustees believe that maintaining reserves at this level, JCWI will be able to maintain financial sustainability and the means to meet its charitable objectives for the foreseeable future. The Trustees review the level of required reserves on an annual basis.

GOING CONCERN

To address the issue of Going Concern, JCWI prepared a Budget for 2025-26 and a Cashflow Forecast for 2026-27, broken out between months to check for any peaks or troughs of liquidity. The projection was prepared on a reasonable case basis and stress tested for a reasonable worst case scenario in which we might not get the renewal applications we hope for, our donations might be down on expected levels, or the legal aid rates might come through later than expected.

Based on this Forecast and Projection and the assumptions on which they are based, the trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charity's ability to continue as a going concern.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

GOVERNANCE AND CONSTITUTION

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) (the word 'Limited' being omitted by license from the Board of Trade) was established 23rd September 1967. It registered as a charity on 8th January 2007 under Registration Number 1117513 and the Company Registration Number is 02700424. It is a Company Limited by guarantee and not having a capital divided by shares. The charity was incorporated on 25th March 1992 and amended by Special Resolution on 20th November 2004.

TRUSTEES

As set out in the Articles of Association, the Chair of Trustees is nominated by the Trustees. The Trustees of the organisation are also the Charity Trustees for the purposes of charity law. The Trustees have general control and management of the administration of the Organisation and its property and funds and for this purpose they may exercise all the powers of the Organisation that are not, by the Companies Act or by the Articles, reserved to the Members.

The Board of Trustees (the 'Executive Committee') has the power to appoint additional Trustees as it considers fit to do so. They are selected based on their skills, experience, and the contribution that they may make to the governance of the organisation. The composition of the Board must be approved by the Members at the Annual General Meeting. The Trustees are also the Directors of the company. Trustees have oversight of the strategy, direction, management, budget, and control of the charity.

Sub-committees

Subject to the Articles, the Trustees may delegate any of the Powers which are conferred on them to any person or sub-committee as they see fit. In 2024-25 the Executive Committee delegated powers to three Board sub-committees to deliver on its governance responsibilities. These were: People and Culture, Fundraising and Finance and Governance.

Trustee Training

The Trustees maintain a good working knowledge of charity and company law and best practice by regular reading of charity press articles and scrutiny of Companies House, Charity Commission, other Government, and voluntary organisation advisory websites. New Trustees are provided with copies of the Memorandum and Articles of Association and

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

copies of relevant strategies and policies are introduced to the activities of the charity by the existing Trustees. Training is made available as and when required.

Statement of Trustee Responsibilities

The trustees (who are also directors of Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulation.

Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;
prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in business.

The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

MEMBERSHIP

JCWI is a membership organisation. Membership is open to any person interested in furthering the Objects and admitted by the Trustees. A member may be an individual, a corporate body, or an individual or corporate body representing an organisation which is not incorporated. A member has the right to attend, vote and speak at general meetings.

PAY POLICY

JCWI uses the NJC Scale for all staff positions. All salaries are commensurate with roles and experience.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

RISK MANAGEMENT

JCWI has a risk framework designed to support the organisation’s leadership to manage, rather than eliminate risk, and to support informed decision-making. The framework supports colleagues to take a consistent approach to identifying and managing risk, ultimately ensuring risk is managed within the Board’s agreed appetite and tolerance.

Our approach recognises five primary risk types (external, operational, regulatory & compliance, financial, and governance) and we consider all risk against the risk to the organisation, its people and the delivery of our strategic aims.

Risk Category	Risk Detail	Mitigation
External environment	• Risks in the external environment (political, economic, social, technical, legal, environmental) impact on JCWI´s ability to deliver on its strategic aims. • An increasingly hostile political environment and competing brought on by frequent changes in government policy. • Risk of attacks from the far-right and/or reputational damage arising as a result.	• JCWI can galvanise a broad movement in our sector towards our campaign and policy aims. • Crisis comms plan and capability, with discussions and preparation in case of sudden rise in media attacks • Rigorous monitoring of policy combined with proactive advocacy, campaigning and communications work to challenge and prevent adverse policy changes; Highly developed capacity for strategic litigation in the event of sudden or unlawful changes • Regular partnership and network information sharing with other organisations in our sector. • External audit and regular reporting ensure compliance with regulations and allows for complete transparency about JCWI activity and finances.
Operational	• Poor management leading to poor performance, low morale and wellbeing due to external environment, risk of burnout, high turnover. • Client complaints leading to time spent handling and risk of reputational damage • Breakdown in IT facilities or cyber-attack leads to loss of most or all functions • Physical or other security threat to JCWI staff and volunteers, including from far-right actors	• Regular line management meetings, trainings for staff and managers, staff wellbeing programme and reflective practice offers • Multiple supervising solicitors provide regular case supervision; robust complaints procedure as needed; maintain indemnity insurance • Online security regularly reviewed, majority of JCWI functions now rely on cloud computing, reducing risk associated with in-house infrastructure failure • Health and Safety Policies in place and under management of Office Manager; • Regular reporting of all incidents • Panic button installed in reception area; Procedure for reporting& loggingincidents.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Regulatory and compliance	• Adverse changes in regulatory environment affect our activities or are designed to contribute to shrinking civil society space. • Data protection breach; failure to maintain financial controls leading to inaccurate reporting to HMRC • Legal action or claim of damages (whether merited or unmerited) leading to financial outlay, reputational damage (including with regulators).	• Quarterly reporting, annual external audit ensure we have complete information when considering regulatory changes or complying with existing regulations; • Data stored securely in accordance with GDPR; policies updated & staff trained • Operations manager oversees • Membership of NCVO, good working relationships with Charity Commission and close monitoring of legislation changes; • Online Accounting System (Quickbooks) managed by effective external accounts;
Financial	• Internal and external financial pressures result in a greater level of financial risk to JCWI • Funding schedule leading to cashflow issues • Inflationary cost pressures • Reserves drop below policy • Greater competition and uncertainty in fundraising.	• Processes for budgeting, financial modelling, reporting, and regular review and forecasting in place to allow leadership to make timely decisions. • Maintain good financial controls with support of external accountancy experts • Reserves maintained at 3 to 6 months of annual expenditure • Regular reporting to and communication with trusts & foundations; Developing and undertaking visible, impactful work that maintains JCWI's position as an 'anchor' in our sector and therefore attracts funding. • Diversify income and fundraising streams and growingour membershipbase.
Governance	• Lack of clarity in objectives leading to organisational drift • Lack of oversight of organisational activities and achievements leading to problems in organisation going un-identified • Issues arising at membership level	• 5-year strategy cycle in place with strategic goals and priorities. • Annual business and operations plan in place with strong organisational budget oversight. • Quarterly monitoring of outcomes and impact. • Quarterly Board reports, performance reports, finance reports produced, and regular staff and service user feedback obtained. • Robust trustee induction and regular training opportunities. • Informative and effective Board papers • Membership of NCVO. • Regular communication with membership

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

Company Number: 02700424

Country of Registration: England and Wales Country of incorporation: United Kingdom Charity Number: 1117513

DIRECTORS AND TRUSTEES

Trustees

Minoo Jalali-Naini - resigned 25 April 2024 Jun Pang - resigned 4 October 2024 Hannah Wickes – resigned 4 April 2025 Sveta Shah – resigned 4 April 2025 Louisa Baxter – resigned 27 April 2025 Alexa Netty – resigned 9 May 2025

Rebecca Baron – resigned 16 May 2025 David James (Treasurer) – resigned 19 May 2025 Pal Luthra – appointed 21 March 2025, resigned 10 June 2025

Anne Campbell Simon Israel

Jacob Berkson – appointed 28 May 2025

Rogelio Braga – appointed 28 May 2025 Liam Browne – appointed 28 May 2025 Sally Causer – appointed 28 May 2025 Bertie Coyle – appointed 28 May 2025 Karen Doyle – appointed 28 May 2025

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Jayanthi Thiyaga Lingham – appointed 28 May 2025

Zehrah Hasan – appointed 17 June 2025

Company Secretary:

Alexandra Lopoukhine – resigned 8 July 2024

Yasmin Halima – appointed 8 July 2024, resigned 30 May 2025

Senior Management Team:

Alexandra Lopoukhine, Interim Executive Director – resigned 8 July 2024

Aria Danaparamita, Advocacy Director – resigned 31 August 2024

Ravishaan Rahel Muthiah, Communications Director – resigned 15 May 2025

Yasmin Halima, Executive Director – appointed 8 July 2024, resigned 30 May 2025

Laura Smith, Co-Legal Director – resigned 29 July 2025

Griff Ferris, Interim Advocacy and Communications Director – appointed 10 June 2025, contract ended 31 October 2025

Rose Bernstein, Interim Executive Director – appointed 9 June 2025

Enny Choudhury, Co-Legal Director

Seema Syeda, Advocacy and Communications Director – appointed 27 October 2025

Registered office and Principal Address:

441 Caledonian Road Unit 4a Cally Yard, London, England, N7 9BG

Auditors: Sayer Vincent LLP, 110 Golden Lane, London, EC1Y 0TG

Bankers: NatWest Bank Plc., 134 Aldersgate Street, London EC1A 4JB

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

DECLARATIONS

So far as the trustees are aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the company’s auditors are unaware. Additionally, the trustees have taken all the necessary steps that they ought to have taken as trustees in order to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the charity’s auditors are aware of that information.

The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company's website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

AUDITORS

A resolution will be proposed at the Annual General Meeting that Sayer Vincent LLP be reappointed as auditors of the Charity for the ensuing year.

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies’ regime within Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006.

APPROVAL

This report was approved by the Board on 10 December 2025 and signed on its behalf by:

Anne Campbell

Chair of Trustees

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Independent auditor’s report

To the members of

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (the ‘charitable company’) for the year ended 31 March 2025 which comprise the statement of financial activities, balance sheet, statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

Give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2025 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure for the year then ended
Have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice
Have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants' ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Independent auditor’s report

To the members of

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Other Information

The other information comprises the information included in the trustees’ annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

The information given in the trustees’ annual report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
The trustees’ annual report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the trustees’ annual report. We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

Adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
The financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
Certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or
We have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or
● The directors were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions

Independent auditor’s report

To the members of

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

in preparing the trustees’ annual report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the statement of trustees’ responsibilities set out in the trustees’ annual report, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud are set out below.

Capability of the audit in detecting irregularities

In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, our procedures included the following:

We enquired of management, which included obtaining and reviewing supporting documentation, concerning the charity’s policies and procedures relating to:

Independent auditor’s report

To the members of

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Identifying, evaluating, and complying with laws and regulations and whether they were aware of any instances of non-compliance;
Detecting and responding to the risks of fraud and whether they have knowledge of any actual, suspected, or alleged fraud;
The internal controls established to mitigate risks related to fraud or noncompliance with laws and regulations.
We inspected the minutes of meetings of those charged with governance.
We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework that the charity operates in, focusing on those laws and regulations that had a material effect on the financial statements or that had a fundamental effect on the operations of the charity from our professional and sector experience.
We communicated applicable laws and regulations throughout the audit team and remained alert to any indications of non-compliance throughout the audit.
We reviewed any reports made to regulators.
We reviewed the financial statement disclosures and tested these to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
We performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships that may indicate risks of material misstatement due to fraud.
In addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, we tested the appropriateness of journal entries and other adjustments, assessed whether the judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias and tested significant transactions that are unusual or those outside the normal course of business.

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation.

A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Independent auditor’s report

To the members of

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company's members as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Noelia Serrano (Senior statutory auditor) Date:12 December 2025

for and on behalf of Sayer Vincent LLP, Statutory Auditor 110 Golden Lane, LONDON, EC1Y 0TG

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Statement of financial activities (incorporating an income and expenditure account)

For the year ended 31 March 2025

For theyear ended 31 March 2025
Note Income from: 2 3 4a 4a 4a Reconciliation of funds: Grants and donations Charitable activities Charitable activities Advocacy Communication & training Case work & legal helplines Total income Expenditure on: Transfers between funds Total expenditure Net income for the year Total funds carried forward Total funds brought forward Net movement in funds	Unrestricted £ 415,185 592,475	Restricted £ 145,000 313,648	2025 Total £ 560,185 906,123 1,466,308 810,497 302,633 323,146 1,436,276 - 30,032 627,724 657,756 30,032	Unrestricted £ 484,319 249,236	Restricted £ 92,500 455,500	2024 Total £ 576,819 704,736
	1,007,660	458,648		733,555	548,000	1,281,555
	689,322 105,161 184,491	121,175 197,472 138,655		544,743 119,983 355,625	120,442 179,172 95,089	665,185 299,155 450,714
	978,974	457,302		1,020,352	394,703	1,415,055
	- 28,686	- 1,346		(12,425) (286,797)	12,425 153,297	- (133,500)
	28,686 379,750	1,346 247,974		(299,222) 678,972	165,722 82,252	(133,500) 761,224
	408,436	249,320		379,750	247,974	627,724

All of the above results are derived from continuing activities. There were no other recognised gains or losses other than those stated above. Movements in funds are disclosed in Note 17a to the financial statements.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Balance sheet

Balance sheet	Balance sheet
As at 31 March 2025			Company	no. 02700424
Note £ Fixed assets: 10 Current assets: 11 592,810 12 59,311 309,567 961,688 Liabilities: 13 (304,642) 17a 34,038 374,398 Total unrestricted funds Total charity funds Cash at bank and in hand Tangible assets The funds of the charity: Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Net current assets Unbilled Fees and Recoverable Disbursements Debtors Total net assets Restricted income funds Unrestricted income funds: Designated funds General funds		2025 £ 710	£ 295,925 48,656 516,620	2024 £ 1,151
		710 657,046		1,151 626,573
	961,688 (304,642)		861,201 (234,628)
	34,038 374,398		37,090 342,660
		657,756		627,724
		249,320 408,436		247,974 379,750

		657,756		627,724

Approved by the trustees on 10 December 2025 and signed on their behalf by

Liam Browne Chair of Trustee

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Statement of cash flows

For the year ended 31 March 2025

For the year ended 31 March 2025
Net income for the year Adjustments for: Depreciation Increase in WIP & Recoverable Disbursements Increase in debtors Increase in creditors Cash at bank and in hand Total cash and cash equivalents Net cashused in operating activities Analysis of cash and cash equivalents and of net debt Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year Net cash used in investing activities Cash flows from investing activities: Purchase of fixed assets	£ £ 30,032 441 (296,885) (10,655) 70,014 (237,085) (207,053) - - (207,053) 516,620 309,567 At 1 April 2024 Cash flows £ £ 516,620 (207,053) 2025		£ £ (133,500) 184 227,075 81,931 38,058 347,248 213,748 (1,334) (1,334) 212,414 304,206 516,620 Other non- cash changes At 31 March 2025 £ £ - 309,567 2024
	-		(1,334)
		(207,053) - (207,053) 516,620		213,748 (1,334) 212,414 304,206
	At 1 April 2024 £ 516,620		Other non- cash changes £ -
		309,567		516,620
		Cash flows £ (207,053)		At 31 March 2025 £ 309,567
	516,620	(207,053)	-	309,567

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2025

1 Accounting policies

a) Statutory information

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants is a charitable company limited by guarantee and is incorporated in the United Kingdom.

The registered office address and principal place of business is 441 Caledonian Road, Unit 4a Cally Yard, London, N7 9BG.

b) Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) - (Charities SORP FRS 102), The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.

Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy or note.

In applying the financial reporting framework, the trustees have made a number of subjective judgements, for example in respect of significant accounting estimates. Estimates and judgements are continually evaluated and are based on historical experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. The nature of the estimation means the actual outcomes could differ from those estimates. Any significant estimates and judgements affecting these financial statements are detailed within the relevant accounting policy below.

c) Public benefit entity

The charity meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

The trustees do not consider that there are any sources of estimation uncertainty at the reporting date that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next reporting period.

d) Going concern

The trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charity's ability to continue as a going concern. In arriving at this decision, the trustees have considered in detail the latest forecast for 2025-26 and the latest projection for 2026-27 and particularly their associated cash flows.

e) Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required, and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified under the following activity headings:

Expenditure on charitable activities includes the costs of delivering services and educational activities undertaken to
further the purposes of the charity and their associated support costs.
Irrecoverable VAT is charged as an overhead cost.

Legal Fees

Income from charitable activities includes income recognised as earned as the related services are provided in the form of legal fees.

Training Income

Income from charitable activities includes income recognised as earned as the related services are provided in the form of training fees.

Membership Fees

Membership fees credited to income on the earlier date of when they are received or when they are receivable, unless they relate to a specified future period, in which case they are deferred.

Donation Income

Donations are recognised in the period in which they are received.

Contract Income

Contract income is recognised over the period of the contract.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2025

1 Accounting policies (continued)

f) Donations of gifts, services and facilities

Donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised as income when the charity has control over the item or received the service, any conditions associated with the donation have been met, the receipt of economic benefit from the use by the charity of the item is probable and that economic benefit can be measured reliably. In accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102), volunteer time is not recognised so refer to the trustees’ annual report for more information about their contribution.

On receipt, donated gifts, professional services and donated facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt.

g) Interest receivable

Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity; this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the bank.

h) Fund accounting

Restricted funds are to be used for specific purposes as laid down by the donor. Expenditure which meets these criteria is charged to the fund.

Unrestricted funds are grants, donations and other incoming resources received or generated for the charitable purposes.

Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the trustees for particular purposes.

i) Grants payable

Grants payable are made to third parties in furtherance of the charity's objects. Single or multi-year grants are accounted for when either the recipient has a reasonable expectation that they will receive a grant and the trustees have agreed to pay the grant without condition, or the recipient has a reasonable expectation that they will receive a grant and that any condition attaching to the grant is outside of the control of the charity.

Provisions for grants are made when the intention to make a grant has been communicated to the recipient but there is uncertainty about either the timing of the grant or the amount of grant payable.

j) Allocation of support costs

Support costs are those functions that assist the work of the charity but do not directly undertake charitable activities. Support costs include general management, finance and administration personnel, payroll

and governance costs which support the charity's programmes and activities. Support costs have been apportioned separately between the charity's key activities on the basis of staff time allocated to each activity.

Casework & Legal Helplines 56% (2024: 27%)
Advocacy 21% (2024: 9%)  Communications & Training 22% (2024: 37%)  Governance costs 1% (2024: 27%)

Governance costs are the costs associated with the governance arrangements of the charity. These costs are associated with constitutional and statutory requirements and include any costs associated with the strategic management of the charity’s activities.

k) Operating leases

Rental charges are charged on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease; there were no operating leases during the year.

l) Tangible fixed assets

Items of equipment are capitalised where the purchase price exceeds £500. Depreciation costs are allocated to activities based on the use of the related assets in those activities. Assets are reviewed for impairment if circumstances indicate their carrying value may exceed their net realisable value and value in use.

Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write down the cost of each asset to its estimated residual value over its expected useful life. The depreciation rates in use are as follows:

 Fixtures, fittings and equipment 20% reducing balance

 Computer & IT equipment 33% on cost

Having reached the end of their useful life, there is a plan, subject to funding, to replace these assets in 2025-26; as a result, the small remaining net book value has also been written off.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2025

1 Accounting policies (continued)

m) Unbilled fees

Unbilled fees at 31st March 2025 consists of the net realisable value of legal casework completed but not billed as well as casework still in progress and is valued at its estimated net realisable value after making provision, where necessary, for any risk of full recovery.

n) Debtors

Trade debtors, prepayments and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due.

o) Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account. Cash balances exclude any funds held on behalf of clients (client money).

p) Creditors and provisions

Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount.

q) Financial instruments

The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value.

r) Pensions

Contributions are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities in the period in which they are payable. The assets of the defined contribution schemes are held separately from those of the company in independently administered funds.

2 Income from grants and donations

administered funds. Income from grants and donations	administered funds. Income from grants and donations
Unrestricted £ 30,000 50,000 - 56,500 157,655 Disrupt - - 121,030 415,185 Immigrants' Aid Trust Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust Donations including Gift Aid A B Charitable Trust Esmée Fairbairn Foundation A B Charitable Trust - Solidarity Fund The Legal Education Foundation - Staff Wellbeing Clothworkers Foundation Oak Foundation		£ - 4,000 35,000 - 100,000 - - - 6,000 - Restricted	2025 Total £ 30,000 4,000 35,000 50,000 100,000 56,500 157,655 - 6,000 121,030	Unrestricted £ 48,542 - - - - 48,850 150,000 55,000 - 181,927	£ - - - - 92,500 - - - - - Restricted	2024 Total £ 48,542 - - - 92,500 48,850 150,000 55,000 - 181,927
	415,185	145,000	560,185	484,319	92,500	576,819

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2025

3 Income from charitable activities

Income from charitable activities	Income from charitable activities
Unrestricted £ - - - - - 38,085 435,443 473,528 4,893 4,893 - - - - - - 75,000 75,000 - - - - - - - 38,447 608 39,054 592,475 Grants: Legal casework and helplines Civic Power Fund Trust for London The Legal Education Foundation - Justice First Fellowship Advocacy: Total Income Communication and engagement Exeter University Training Training and Course fees Training: Total Income Advocacy UNISON - Advice line for members Legal aid, certificated and other casework fees Joseph Rowntree Foundation Grants and donations: Barrow Cadbury Trust Total income from charitable activities Membership subscriptions Publications & Merchandise Communication and engagement: Total Income Newby Trust Ltd Homelessness Appeal Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust Strategic Legal Fund - ILPA Birmingham/EC/Innovate/UKRI Disrupt Foundation: New Website Disrupt Foundation: Covid Inquiry Grants: Barrow Cadbury European Programme for Integration and Migration Paul Hamlyn Foundation Open Society Foundation Cross Border Forum: Total Income Paul Hamlyn Polden Puckham - Climate Justice Legal casework and helplines: Total Income Contract income:		£ 1,000 2,000 5,000 6,684 47,828 - - Restricted	2025 Total £ 1,000 2,000 5,000 6,684 47,828 38,085 435,443	Unrestricted £ - - - - - 33,290 78,892	£ - - - - 92,625 - - Restricted	2024 Total £ - - - - 92,625 33,290 78,892
	473,528 4,893	62,512 -	536,040 4,893	112,182 23,862	92,625 -	204,807 23,862
	4,893 - - - -	- 22,500 - 50,000 -	4,893 22,500 - 50,000 -	23,862 - - - -	- 15,000 29,745 50,000 58,351	23,862 15,000 29,745 50,000 58,351
	- - 75,000	72,500 - 133,194 -	72,500 - 133,194 75,000	- - 75,000	153,095 11,913 109,964 -	153,095 11,913 109,964 75,000
	75,000 - - - - - - - 38,447 608	205,694 27,500 1,988 - - - 15,954 - - -	280,694 27,500 1,988 - - - 15,954 - 38,447 608	75,000 - - - - - - - 35,524 2,668	274,972 30,000 1,858 3,750 28,944 13,351 - 10,000 - -	349,972 30,000 1,858 3,750 28,944 13,351 - 10,000 35,524 2,668
	39,054	45,442	84,496	38,192	87,903	126,095
	592,475	313,648	906,123	249,236	455,500	704,736

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2025

4a Analysis of expenditure (current year)

	Charitable activitie	s	Governance £ 12,700 - - - 198 - - - -	Support £ - 3,149 441 - 94,751 64,970 109,639 188,812 5,235	2025 Total £ 12,700 12,276 441 3,258 147,536 124,306 109,639 1,018,924 7,196	2024 Total £ 21,700 38,737 184 40,555 90,263 118,925 99,461 992,830 12,400
Case work & legal helplines £ - 199 - 1,758 30,820 19,850 - 485,153 1,361	Advocacy £ - 643 - 1,500 20,705 14,319 - 163,307 400	Communication & Training £ - 8,285 - - 1,062 25,167 - 181,652 200
539,141 261,518 9,838	200,874 98,069 3,689	216,366 102,739 4,041	12,898 4,670 (17,568)	466,997 (466,997) -	1,436,276 - -	1,415,055 - -
810,497	302,633	323,146	-	-	1,436,276	1,415,055
665,185	299,155	450,714	-	-

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2025

4b Analysis of expenditure (prior year)

	Charitable activities	Charitable activities	Governance £ 21,700 - - - - 89 - - -	Support £ - 4,775 184 1,583 32,161 83,914 99,461 242,156 11,792	2024 Total £ 21,700 38,737 184 40,555 90,263 118,925 99,461 992,830 12,400
Case work & legal helplines £ - 514 - 38,972 28,573 12,715 - 399,788 479	Advocacy £ - 3,840 - - 28,746 14,625 - 189,535 25	Communication & Training £ - 29,608 - - 782 7,582 - 161,350 104
481,042 128,527 55,617	236,772 42,842 19,541	199,426 176,130 75,158	21,789 128,527 (150,316)	476,026 (476,026) -	1,415,055 - -
665,185	299,155	450,714	-	-	1,415,055

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2025

5 Net income for the year

This is stated after charging:

This is stated after charging:
	2025	2024
	£	£
Depreciation	441	184
Auditor's remuneration (net of VAT)
Audit	14,700	16,000
Audit - prior year under-accrual	(2,000)	5,700

6 Analysis of staff costs, trustee remuneration and expenses, and the cost of key management personnel

Staff costs were as follows:

Staff costs were as follows:
Pension Costs £60,000 - £69,999 Salaries and wages Social security costs Redundancy Settlement	2025 £ 867,745 88,273 32,906 30,000	2024 £ 872,573 86,024 34,233 -
	1,018,924	992,830
	2025 No. 2	2024 No. -

In 2024-25 The Senior Leadership Team comprise the Executive Director, Legal Director, Advocacy Director and Communications Director. The total employee benefits (including pension contributions and employer's national insurance) of the key management personnel were £303,107 (2024: £310,388). Included in the value of £303,107 is a £30,000 settlement amount paid.

The charity trustees were neither paid nor received any other benefits from employment with the charity in the year (2025: £nil). No charity trustee received payment for professional or other services supplied to the charity (2024: £nil).

Trustee expenses paid for the year ended 31 March 2025: £198 (2024: £73).

7 Staff numbers

The average number of staff employed during the year was 21.8 (2024: 21.3).

Staff are split across the activities of the charity as follows:

Staff are split across the activities of the charity as follows:
Advocacy and policy Legal Representation, advice, support and legal helplines Communications and media Operations and training Governance and support	2025 No. 11.3 2.3 4.2 1.0 3.0	2024 No. 9.5 4.0 4.4 0.2 3.2
	21.8	21.3

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2025

8 Related party transactions

JCWI and The Immigrants' Aid Trust ("IAT") are related parties as some trustees are common to both. At the yearend IAT owed JCWI £0 (2024 £0). The following transactions took place during the year between JCWI and IAT:

JCWI rents premises owned by IAT at 441 Caledonian Rd, London, for which annual rent of £100,000 (2024
£100,000) is payable.
JCWI receives a Grant of £100,000 (2024 £100,000) for rent from IAT.

9 Taxation

The charity is exempt from corporation tax as all its income is charitable and is applied for charitable purposes.

10 Tangible fixed assets

Tangible fixed assets
Additions in year At the end of the year Net book value At the end of the year At the start of the year Charge for the year All of the above assets are used for charitable purposes. At the start of the year At the end of the year Depreciation At the start of the year Cost	Computer & IT Equipment £ 36,856 -	Fixtures, fittings and equipment £ 3,397 -	Total £ 40,253 -
	36,856	3,397	40,253
	35,705 441 36,146	3,397 - 3,397	39,102 441 39,543
	710	-	710
	1,151	-	1,151

11 Unbilled Legal Fees

11 Unbilled Legal Fees
12 Trade debtors Prepayments and other debtors Debtors Legal Fees - Unbilled and Work-in-Progress Recoverable Disbursements Accrued income	2025 £ 355,336 237,474	2024 £ 192,087 103,838
	592,810	295,925
	2025 £ 17,241 42,070 -	2024 £ 35,845 9,706 3,105
	59,311	48,656

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2025

13 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
Deferred income (note 14) Trade creditors Accruals Other creditors Taxation and social security	2025 £ 198,316 23,478 6,502 53,711 22,635	2024 £ 85,649 33,193 9,896 83,428 22,463
	304,642	234,628

14 Deferred income

The deferred income includes contract income of £XX received from UNISON in advance for helpline work to be carried out in 2025(2024: £22,463).

carried out in 2025(2024: £22,463).
Balance at the beginning of the year Amount released to income in the year Amount deferred in the year Balance at the end of the year	2025 £ 22,463 (22,463) 22,635	2024 £ 23,863 (23,863) 22,463
	22,635	22,463

15 Pension scheme

The pension cost charge represents contributions payable by the charity to the fund and amounted to £32,906 (2024: £34,233). The charity had accrued pension contributions of £nil (2024: £Nil).

16a Analysis of net assets between funds (current year)

Analysis of net assets between funds (current year)
Tangible fixed assets Net current assets Net assets at 31 March 2025	General unrestricted £ 710 373,688	Designated £ - 34,038	Restricted £ - 249,320	Total funds £ 710 657,046
	374,398	34,038	249,320	657,756

16b Analysis of net assets between funds (prior year - restated)

Tangible fixed assets Net current assets Net assets at 31 March 2024	General unrestricted £ 1,151 341,509	Designated £ - 37,090	Restricted £ - 247,974	Total funds £ 1,151 626,573
	342,660	37,090	247,974	627,724

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2025

For the year ended 31 March 2025
17a Restricted funds: Total restricted funds General funds Oak Foundation Trust for London The Clothworkers Foundation Unrestricted funds: Designated funds: Advocacy: Case work, legal and helplines: Paul Hamlyn Foundation (Cross Border Forum) The Immigrants Aid Trust Migrant Defence fund Communication: OSF (Cross Border Forum) Barrow Cadbury Trust Polden Puckham Charitable Foundation Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust Total funds Total unrestricted funds Disrupt Foundation: Covid Inquiry Disrupt Foundation: New Website Newby Trust Ltd Movements in funds (current year) Grants and Donations: Joseph Rowntree Foundation AB Charitable Trust Emergency Solidarity Fund The Legal Education Foundation The Legal Education Foundation Immigration Law Practitioners Association Strategic Legal Fund Civic Power Fund Barrow Cadbury Trust (Cross Border Forum) EPIM (Cross Border Forum) UKRI Innovate UK	At 1 April 2024 £ - - - - - - 4,180 - - 22,483 13,434 9,729 49,172 41,125 75,890 (443) 3,750 16,156 10,000 2,500 -	Income & gains £ 4,000 35,000 100,000 6,000 1,000 2,000 - 6,684 5,000 47,828 22,500 - 50,000 - 133,194 1,988 - - - 27,500 15,954	Expenditure & losses £ - - (100,000) - (1,000) (2,000) (4,180) (6,684) - (70,311) (10,247) (587) (37,825) (27,360) (108,453) (1,545) - (16,156) (10,000) (45,000) (15,954)	Transfers £ - - - - - - - - - - (15,000) 9,045 (9,045) - - - - - - 15,000 -	At 31 March 2025 £ 4,000 35,000 - 6,000 - - - - 5,000 - 10,686 18,186 52,302 13,765 100,631 - 3,750 - - - -
	247,974	458,648	(457,302)	-	249,320
	37,090 342,660	- 1,007,660	(3,052) (975,922)	- -	34,038 374,398
	379,750	1,007,660	(978,974)	-	408,436
	627,724	1,466,308	(1,436,276)	-	657,756

The narrative to explain the purpose of each fund is given below.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2025

For the year ended 31 March 2025	For the year ended 31 March 2025
17b At 1 April 2023 £ Restricted funds: 9,211 - 20,154 4,257 37,631 5,000 - 6,000 - - Total restricted funds 82,252 40,963 General funds 638,008 678,971 761,223 Paul Hamyln Foundation (Cross Border Forum) Communication: Disrupt Foundation: New Website Homelessness Appeal Economic and Social Research Council (ESCR) Exeter University Disrupt Foundation: Covid Inquiry Newby Trust Ltd Migrant Defence fund Total unrestricted funds OSF (Cross Border Forum) Total funds Barrow Cadbury Trust UKRI Innovate UK Case work, legal and helplines: Oak Foundation Trust for London Movements in funds (prior year movement) Immigrants Aid trust Grants and Donations: Polden Puckham Charitable Foundation Greater London Authority Unrestricted funds: Designated funds: Advocacy: Barrow Cadbury Trust (Cross Border Forum) EPIM (Cross Border Forum)		Income & gains £ 92,500 - 92,625 15,000 29,745 50,000 58,351 - 11,913 - 109,964 13,351 1,858 3,750 28,944 10,000 30,000	Expenditure & losses £ (100,000) (5,800) (77,642) (21,720) (24,273) (828) (54,857) - (17,069) - (34,074) (13,351) (2,301) - (12,788) - (30,000)	Transfers £ 7,500 769 7,500 - - - - (5,000) 5,156 (6,000) - - - - - 2,500	At 31 March 2024 £ - 4,180 22,483 - 13,434 9,729 49,172 41,125 - - - 75,890 - (443) 3,750 16,156 10,000 2,500
	82,252	548,000	(394,703)	12,425	247,974
	40,963 638,008	- 733,555	(3,873) (1,016,479)	- (12,425)	37,090 342,660 379,750
	678,971	733,555	(1,020,352)	(12,425)
	761,223	1,281,555	(1,415,054)	-	627,724

Description, nature and purpose of restricted grants:

Grants and Donations:

AB Charitable Trust Emergency Solidarity Fund

A one-off grant for responding to additional needs deriving from widespread violence across the UK in August 2024 including primarily wellbeing support for staff.

The Clothworkers Foundation

A one-off grant for the replacement of IT equipment for a charity which works with refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in Greater London.

The Immigrants Aid Trust

JCWI rent property from The Immigrants Aid Trust (charity number 262860) which is a trust set up at the same time as and linked to JCWI. JCWI pays annual rent, and then IAT donate the money back to JCWI.

The Legal Education Foundation

A one-off grant for responding to additional needs deriving from widespread violence across the UK in August 2024 including primarily wellbeing support for staff.

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2025

17 Movements in funds (continued)

Casework, legal and helplines:

Civic Power Fund

One-off support to translate our Access to Justice guide into community languages to make it accessible to the migrant communities we work with to empower them to fight their immigration cases and stay in the UK.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation

A knowledge exchange on the immigrant experience in the UK looking at the implications of government policy on migrant poverty, day to day precarity, and family and community insecurity and the consequence of the desertification of legal aid on human rights.

Oak Foundation

Support for JCWI to manage ensure it has in place trained staff, robust processes and procedures to generate, manage and project income from legal aid, manage cashflow and ensure adequate income under its legal aid contract to cover its costs in undertaking its legal work.

Immigration Law Practitioners Association Strategic Legal Fund

A one-off grant of seed funding awarded to JCWI for research and scoping work into the lack of discretionary 3C leave.

The Legal Education Foundation

Funding a Justice First Fellowship for a trainee solicitor to support JCWI and to devise and run their own project aimed at increasing access to justice.

Trust for London

Funding provided for the provision of a free, anonymous advice helpline (the IML) and the development of our understanding of irregularity and associated issues through this work.

Advocacy:

Barrow Cadbury Trust

To support the work of the Cross-border Forum, a project bringing together organisations concerned with the UKFrance-Belgium border to exchange information and expertise, construct a shared analysis of cross-border policies and their impact, and join forces on advocacy and policy work on the border. European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM)

Paul Hamlyn Foundation

Open Society Foundation (OSF)

Exeter University

Funding a project on Migrant Workers in the Care Sector, in partnership with Kanlungan, FLEX, SEEAC and an academic team from Exeter

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2025

17 Movements in funds (continued)

Greater London Authority

Funding provided for distribution through the Windrush Justice Fund programme to other, smaller organisations working with the Windrush Generation and their descendants. JCWI does not accept funding from central or devolved government and is therefore prohibited from using these funds internally.

Polden Puckham Charitable Foundation

Grant to address the ways that climate change and human migration are interlinked and find and promote practical changes to national and global systems of migration that respond to the realities of life for communities affected by climate breakdown.

Communication:

UKRI Innovate UK

Small grant to work with the University of Birmingham on their research into improving the labour and living conditions of irregularised migrant households in the UK and to produce policy responses to prevent and support people for whom this is a risk or a reality.

Disrupt Foundation

Grant to a partnership of organisations including the Public Interest Law Centre, Doctors of the World, Bail for Immigration Detainees and Kanlungan to respond to the Government’s Covid-19 enquiry specifically on the ways in which it has impacted migrants.

Disrupt Foundation

Grant to pay for a website developer Fat Beehive to develop a new website for JCWI that enables us to reach more people and better showcase our work.

Newby Trust

Grant to cover part of the salary and costs of a support worker for the legal team, to provide practical and emotional support to clients receiving legal representation from the lawyers.

Barrow Cadbury Trust

Grant towards the towards JCWI's policy, advocacy and communications work: challenging injustice, combining strategic litigation, rapid response advocacy and building, educating and mobilising broad coalitions to moderate the worst excesses of both new and old policy, while building the power of communities to advocate for change and pressing for new pathways to regularisation and citizenship and the dismantling of the hostile environment.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation

One-off grant to enable JCWI to run our Big Event in April bringing together immigration lawyers, campaigners, former clients, and activists who have themselves been through the asylum system, with our own members, donors and supporters, at an Event looking at Power, Accountability, and Erosion of Human Rights, headlined by our Lived Experience Advisory Board.

Description, nature and purpose of unrestricted funds:

General funds

General fund represents funds available to spend at the discretion of the Trustees.

Migrant Defence Fund

Funding designated by the JCWI board to support the provision of unfunded legal advice and support.

17c Transfers out of restricted funds

Barrow Cadbury Trust (Cross Border Forum) to Barrow Cadbury Trust

£15,000 of income had been incorrectly allocated to the cross-border forum element of our grant from Barrow Cadbury, this movement is to reallocate to the Barrow Cadbury trust grant not related to the cross-border forum element.

Paul Hamlyn (Cross Border Forum) to EPIM (Cross Border Forum)

It was agreed with both parties that expenditure relating to indirect salaries and overhead contributions covering the period November 2023 - March 2024 would be reallocated from EPIM to Paul Hamlyn.

18 Legal status of the charity

The charity is a company limited by guarantee and has no share capital. The liability of each member in the event of winding up is limited to £1.