What was claimed
The UK spends £14 billion a year on “foreign aid”.
Our verdict
This figure is slightly out of date. In 2019 the UK spent £15.2 billion on foreign aid.
How does UK foreign aid spending compare to NHS donations
23 April 2020
A post on Facebook asks “why is UK spending £14bn a year on “foreign aid” while relying on a 99 year old to raise money for the NHS?”
Foreign aid is money spent by the government on development and humanitarian projects in low and middle income countries. The UK spent just over £15 billion a year on foreign aid in 2019. Spending on foreign aid is linked to the size of the economy. The UK spends 0.7% of its Gross National Income on foreign aid, in line with the United Nations’ target for foreign aid spending.
The fundraising for the NHS refers to the efforts of Captain Tom Moore, who has, at the time of writing, raised more than £28 million for NHS Charities Together, a membership organisation representing NHS charities, which also raises money on behalf of NHS charities in England, Scotland and Wales.
The charity “is funding grants to help NHS charities support NHS staff, volunteers and patients in ways above and beyond what NHS funding can ordinarily provide, including wellbeing packs, rest and recuperation rooms, electronic tablets for isolated patients to communicate to loved ones. The funds will also resource vital care partnerships and longer term mental health recovery of staff and families.”
NHS Charities Together says it raised £457 million last year and spent over £1 million a day. By comparison the budget for the Department of Health in England alone is £140 billion for 2019/20.
Whether the NHS is “relying” on charitable contributions is a matter of opinion and not something we can fact check.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as true because the foreign aid budget is broadly accurate, and the claim about the NHS relying on charities is an opinion.