Phases of Closure

Phase 1: Initial Distributions

The Trust has made financial distributions to the Listed Beneficiaries (those still Trust Members at the time of closure), enabling them to transition to new living and support arrangements.

Phase 2: Redress and Claims

Redress Scheme

The Jesus Fellowship Redress Scheme was available for applications between 26th September 2022 and 5pm 31 December 2023 for those who suffered harm, abuse and/or adverse experiences within the Jesus Fellowship community.

The Jesus Fellowship Redress Scheme Final Report can be found here:
https://jesus.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Jesus-Fellowship-Redress-Scheme-Final-Report.pdf

High Court Application

The Trustees made an application to court, to request the assistance of a judge to order that any further civil claims to the Trust assets, beyond the Redress Scheme, were made known, and for the trustees to then proceed without uncertainty with distributions in Phases 3 and 4.

Phase 3 and 4: Historic and Apportionment

The trustees expect no votes or further distributions of Trust assets (other than in relation to the Redress Scheme) to be made until the court process reaches its conclusion in 2025.

Listed Beneficiaries and those who have registered interest in Phase 3 and Phase 4 are updated directly on a monthly basis with progress of the closure.

Please note: The distributions of the remaining fund in Phase 3 and Phase 4 are not intended to be reflective of harm or abuse suffered in the Jesus Fellowship. They are not at the discretion of the trustees, but are instead bound by the Trust Deed, votes of the Listed Beneficiaries and any directions of the High Court.

Following the completion of Phase 2,  as per the Trust Deed, the Listed Beneficiaries will vote on whether the following categories of individuals – who registered their interest and details with the closure – may be entitled to the distribution of funds.

Phase 3

The Trust Deed states the Listed beneficiaries will vote on whether the following individuals, who have registered their interest in the closure, may be entitled to any funds (this is vote is called Phase 3):

1. a) “Those who have previously left membership of the JFCT and did not receive a ‘Relief of Need’ payment, or only received part payment (at that time or through any subsequent scheme).”

• Eligible applicants will be living, former Contributing Members of the Trust.
• Applicants must have registered their interest (in the manner publicly invited by the Trustees) in this element of Phase 3 prior to 23:59 on 30 April 2026.
• Should this element be affirmed by vote, each eligible applicant will be paid such sum as is required to ensure that they will have received a total of £3,200 in respect of relief of need payments from the Trust.
• Any applicant who according to the Trustees’ records has received £3,200 or more in respect of relief of need payments from the Trust prior to the Phase 3 vote will not be eligible for further payments regardless of the outcome of the vote on this element of Phase 3.
• Individuals to whom sums are payable must have provided all required information as requested by the Trustees to enable payments to be made by 1 March 2027. Failure on the part of the individual to do this will result in their payment being forfeited and falling to be held as part of the Retained Fund (as defined at paragraph 5 of the Order of Chief Master Shuman dated 25 July 2025) (hereinafter referred to as the Retained Fund).

1. b) “Those who previously left the Jesus Fellowship community and did not receive any payments relating to participation in a Common Purse between the ages of 16 and 21 (at that time or through any subsequent scheme.)”

• Eligible applicants will be living individuals who clearly demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Trustees that they fully contributed to a common purse or common purses while aged between 16 and 21 years.
• For the purposes of this element of Phase 3, “fully contributed” means that the individual paid the entirety of their income into a common purse or common purses.
• Applicants must have registered their interest (in the manner publicly invited by the Trustees) in this element of Phase 3 prior to 23:59 on 30 April 2026.
• Should this element be affirmed by vote, each eligible applicant will receive £250 for every full month after 31 October 1979 in respect of which they have demonstrated that they fully contributed to a common purse or common purses between the ages of 16 and 21.
• Any applicant who according to the Trustees’ records has previously received a payment or payments from any other JFCT scheme devised primarily to make payments to those people who lived in the Community aged under the age of 21 years (excluding the Redress Scheme and any other elements of Phase 3) will be excluded from qualification for this element of Phase 3.
• Listed Beneficiaries are excluded from qualification for this element of Phase 3.
• Individuals to whom sums are payable must have provided all required information as requested by the Trustees to enable payments to be made by 1 March 2027. Failure on the part of the individual to do this will result in their payment being forfeited and falling to be held as part of the Retained Fund.

1. c) “Those who demonstrate that they lived in the Community while under the age of 18 who have not already received a full compensation payment under the Community Adverse Experience limb of the Redress Scheme”

• Eligible applicants will be living individuals who lived in the Jesus Fellowship Community prior to the age of 18 years, or the parents or legal guardians of such individual or individuals if such individual or individuals are under the age of 18 years at the time of application. In order for an individual to be eligible, their parent or parents must be demonstrated to have been Contributing Members of the Trust.
• For the purposes of this element of Phase 3, “lived in the Jesus Fellowship Community prior to the age of 18 years” means that it is demonstrated by the individual or by their parent or legal guardian (as the case may be) to the satisfaction of the Trustees that they lived in the Jesus Fellowship Community for at least three continuous months while under the age of 18 years.
• Individuals (or their parents or legal guardians on their behalf) must have registered their interest (in the manner publicly invited by the Trustees) in this element of Phase 3 prior to 23:59 on 30 April 2026.
• Should this element be affirmed by vote, each eligible individual will be paid a sum equivalent to that which they would have been paid had they made a successful application for a CAE payment under the Community Adverse Experience element of the Redress Scheme referred to in clause 25 (iii-a) of the Trust Deed.
• In the event that any individual has previously made a successful application for a CAE payment under the Community Adverse Experience element of the Redress Scheme referred to in clause 25 (iii-a) of the Trust Deed then they will ineligible for any further payment under this element of Phase 3 even if it is affirmed by vote.
• Should this element be affirmed by vote then individuals to whom sums are payable who were 18 or over at the time of application and therefore applied on their own behalf must have provided all required information as requested by the Trustees to enable payments to be made by 1 March 2027. Failure on the part of the individual to do this will result in their payment being forfeited and falling to be held as part of the Retained Fund.
• Should this element be affirmed by vote then payments due to be made to individuals who were aged under 18 years at the time of application and therefore had a parent or guardian apply on their behalf will be retained by the Trustees until the relevant individual is 18 years of age.
  • Upon turning 18 years of age, the relevant individual may apply to the Trustees for payment of the sum due to them.
  • The Trustees may require production of any evidence of identification as they in their own discretion may require as a prerequisite for the release of funds.
  • The Trustees may, in respect of an individual known to have turned 18, at any time give such individual 3 months’ notice to provide all required information as requested by the Trustees to enable their payment to be made, failing which their payment will be forfeited and fall to be held as part of the Retained Fund.
  • In any event, the relevant individual must apply for the sum due to them at least three months prior to the date of the closure of the Trust, which is expected to be in 2039. It is the responsibility of the applicant and their parents or legal guardians to monitor www.jesus.org.uk to determine when the final date of closure is confirmed. Should the applicant fail to apply in time then the sum due to them will be deemed forfeited and fall to be held as part of the Retained Fund.
  • For the avoidance of doubt, pending the making of payments as above, the individuals entitled to payment shall not be beneficial owners of any particular sums of money, nor beneficiaries of the Trust generally, and the assets out of which payment is in due course to be made shall until payment be part of the Retained Fund and shall be managed in accordance with the Trust Deed as it stands from time to time.

 And d) “the provision of a fund to pay for counselling sessions”.

• Eligible applicants will be living individuals who lived in the Jesus Fellowship Community prior to the age of 18 years, or the parents or legal guardians of such individual or individuals if such individual or individuals are under the age of 18 years at the time of application. In order for an individual to be eligible, their parent or parents must be demonstrated to have been Contributing Members of the Trust.
• For the purposes of this element of Phase 3, “lived in the Jesus Fellowship Community prior to the age of 18 years” means that it is demonstrated by the individual or by their parent or legal guardian (as the case may be) to the satisfaction of the Trustees that they lived in the Jesus Fellowship Community for at least three continuous months while under the age of 18 years.
• Individuals (or their parents or legal guardians on their behalf) must have registered their interest (in the manner publicly invited by the Trustees) in this element of Phase 3 prior to 23:59 on 30 April 2026.
• Should this element be affirmed by vote, the Trustees will make available the sum of £1,000 for each eligible individual to be used for counselling.
  • The individual, or their parent or legal guardian on their behalf, will be responsible for arranging the counselling for the individual.
  • The £1,000 sum will be administered by the Trustees and payment for counselling will be made to the relevant counsellor on production to the Trustees by the counsellor of an invoice.
  • Funds will be available for dispersal from 1 September 2026 and will be available for 6 months.
  • If at 1 March 2027 a successful applicant has not used all of the funds available to them and wishes to continue in counselling, a sum equivalent to the cost of three additional counselling sessions (or the balance of available funds for that individual, whichever is the lower amount) will be made available for payment to their counsellor as credit to be used for further counselling if that counsellor submits an appropriate invoice by 1 April 2027.
  • If at 1 April 2027 a successful applicant has not used all of the funds available to them, and a counsellor has not claimed as above, then the remaining balance will fall to be held as part of the Retained Fund.
• In the event that any applicant has, according to the Trustees’ records, previously made a successful application for funding for counselling from the Trust then they will ineligible for any further funding for counselling under this element of Phase 3 even if it is affirmed by vote.

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Phase 4

The Trust Deed also states the Listed beneficiaries will vote on whether the following individuals, who have registered their interest in the closure, may be entitled to any funds (this is vote is called Phase 4):

The Trustees shall (having consulted as they think fit with representatives of Listed Beneficiaries) propose two alternative formulae for the apportionment of the surplus, (i) being Formula A which shall be a scheme for apportionment of the surplus among the Listed Beneficiaries only; and (ii) being  Formula B which shall be a scheme for apportionment of the surplus among the Listed Beneficiaries and some or all former Contributing Members of the Trust (the Phase 4 Proposals).

Details of Formula B are as follows:

• Individuals who were Listed Beneficiaries as at 31 May 2020, per Formula A above, are automatically included and eligible for this Formula B.
• In addition to this, eligible applicants to participate are living, former Contributing Members of the Trust.
• For the purposes of this Phase 4 Formula B, “Contributing Member” means someone who demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Trustees that they were a Contributing Member, as defined by the Trust Deed, for at least 5 continuous years between 31 October 1979 and 31 May 2020.
• Former Contributing Member applicants must have registered their interest (in the manner publicly invited by the Trustees) in this element of Phase 4 prior to 23:59 on 30 April 2026.
• The fund will be divided as follows:
  • Each Listed Beneficiary will be assigned a score based on their years of membership as a Contributing Member between 31 October 1979 and 31 May 2020, to be calculated as follows:
    • Each year as a Contributing Member while aged below 41 (calculated as days of eligible Contributing Membership divided by 365.25, rounded to the nearest year, less years of eligible Contributing Membership aged 41 or above calculated as set out below) will be assigned a score of 1;
    • Each year as a Contributing Member while aged 41 or above (calculated as days of eligible Contributing Membership aged 41 or above divided by 365.25, rounded to the nearest year) will be assigned a score of 1.5;
  • Each Contributing Member applicant will be assigned a score for each year as a Contributing Member, with the score being 1 for each of 2019, 2018 and 2017; 0.73 for 2016; and thereafter decreasing by 0.02 per year until the score for 1980 is 0.01.
    • A Contributing Member applicant must have been a Contributing Member for at least 6 months of the relevant year for that year to be included in their score.
  • The total scores of all of the Listed Beneficiaries and of all of the Contributing Member applicants will be added together;
  • The value of the fund for distribution will be divided by that total to give a notional value of “1 unit”;
  • Based on that notional value and each Listed Beneficiary’s and Contributing Member applicant’s personal score, their respective entitlement will be calculated (the notional value of “1 unit” times the personal score).
• In the case of an individual who was a Listed Beneficiary on 31 May 2020 but who has died or dies before receipt of their entitlement under this formula B, their entitlement will be paid:
  • To whomever they have nominated on a Post Death Nomination Form;
  • Failing that, to their estate upon the application by their Personal Representatives, which application must be made before 1 March 2027 save that the Trustees may in their discretion grant a prospective or retroactive extension of up to 12 months; and
  • Failing that as well, the entitlement will fall to be distributed to surviving Listed Beneficiaries as Residual Funds in accordance with clause 25(e) of the Deed.
• In the case of a former Contributing Member who is alive on the date of registration to participate under Formula B but subsequently dies prior to receiving payment, the eligibility of that person shall fall away upon death, no payment to or in respect of that person shall be made, and the amount which that person would have received will fall to be distributed as Residual Funds in accordance with clause 25(e) and (f) of the Deed.
• Should any person notionally eligible for a payment under Phase 4 have been convicted of a criminal offence in connection with the Trust or the Jesus Fellowship Community, which conviction is known to the Trustees (without obligation on the Trustees to inquire), and the offence in respect of which the person was convicted has resulted in a financial loss to the Trust, the Trustees will deduct from any payments due to that person under Phase 4 the value of such loss caused to the Trust flowing from that conviction.
• Individuals to whom sums are payable must have provided all required information as requested by the Trustees to enable payments to be made by 1 March 2027. Failure on the part of the individual to do this will result in their payment being forfeited and falling to be held as part of the Retained Fund.
• The balance of the Retained Fund will in due course be distributed in accordance with Formula A, regardless of the outcome of the Phase 4 vote.

As with Phase 3 described above, the Trustees are bound to follow the outcome and instruction of the Phase 4 vote, and any person meeting the criteria will become additional beneficiaries of the dissolution of the Trust.