Mencap happy with Littlewoods

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Your report on Mencap’s relationship with Littlewoods Lotteries “Mencap to drop tie-up with Littlewoods game” (MW June 7) has caused distress to all concerned.

In 1995, Mencap received over 200,000 from one Littlewoods scratchcard sold in the Yorkshire region. Without this money, we would have had to cut back on vital services to children and adults with learning disabilities.

Littlewoods Lotteries scratchcards do not offer low returns to charities.

Each charity receives 24 per cent of the takings, and there is no difference between the returns from regional and national scratchcards.

The accurate part of your report is that Mencap is about to launch a national scratchcard game with another operator. Scratch & Win and Nisa Today have offered Mencap an irresistible and unexpected opportunity to increase our total number of individual scratchcard games, thereby making more money overall for the charity.

Our relationship with Littlewoods remains warm (no thanks to Marketing Week). Like many other UK charities, we hold Littlewoods in the highest esteem.

I should also like to point out that Mencap is not a mental health charity, but one working on behalf of people with learning disabilities (mental handicap) which is a permanent condition and not mental illness.

Lord Rix

Chairman

Mencap

London EC1