Malicious accusation. World challenge.

[Gksmith]

So my daughter signed up to do the world challenge 2019 to Tanzania. World challenge is basically an adventure holiday broker that are supposed to help empower your child to earn the cost of a ‘trip of a lifetime’.
Unfortunately my daughter had to pull out of this as she is suffering with severe anorexia and would not be physically well enough to partake in the trip. Several family members gave money direct to My daughters world challenge account and several gave Her loans with which to purchase materials to try and earn extra money. I myself spend several hundred pounds.
As part of the contract world challenge kept 10% of the cost of the trip, £300, and reimbursed the rest of the money paid to me. I paid off my family that gave loans for investment and made sure that I paid off the loan I took out. There was not enough money to reiemburse everyone.
My daughter subsequently decided she wanted no more contact with her paternal family. This was unrelated and her choice, she is nearly 15 and more than capable of making these complex decisions now.
Here is where is gets complicated.
I received a phone call from the police saying that an allegation of theft has been made by My daughters paternal family! I have not been given any details but they are basically accusing me of stealing the money from them for the fundraising.
I am autistic and have been freaking out ever since. I know I have not done anything deliberately wrong and I don’t see how anyone could think that so I assume it must be a malicious allegation as they are aggrieved that my daughter has cut contact.
The grandmother came with me to the world challenge meeting. They all knew that my daughter had to pull out due to health reasons and that she was very upset about it. I had discussed in detail the possibility of financial loss with My daughters grandmother who knew She may not be well enough to partake in the trip. I am already down several hundred pounds financially from this. How can somebody give a gift to a child, family, and then accuse of theft?
It doesn’t make any sense to me.
Please help if you can or have any advice. I am really struggling here.
Thanks
Xx

Thank you for your advice

If I gave money to a relative for a trip like this, I would expect to get it back if the trip was cancelled. You have had the money returned to you, you haven't give it to your daughter, so you are holding money that was never yours in the first place.

If the company has returned everything bar the £300/10% admin fee then I think you should have arranged for everyone to be paid back less 10% of their original donation, and then you pay back the additional 10% to them as soon as you are able. I'm sorry that your daughter is ill but that doesn' t mean it's alright not to repay people money.

If I gave money to a child for a trip that they then could not go on because they were too ill and they were upset about this I would never dream of asking for the money back, even if I didn’t know the child. It is not like I have gained from this! I have lost out as well. This is why I hate capatalist viewpoints

Also the maths does not work that way. 10% of a £20 donation is £2 less.....10% of a 3000 trip is 300. You are also failing to take into account money given for investment that was needed to be paid back.
People on here are very money orientated

I don’t think capitalism has anything to do with it. These weren’t gifts but payments for a specific purpose which won’t got ahead now, so you do have a responsibility to repay people unless they have said not to.

I have read so much criticism on here of World Challenge (and a lot of it seems fair to me) but encouraging people to take out loans is something else entirely.

From their point of view:

1. They gifted £50 towards a trip
2. the trip was cancelled and 90% of the money was refunded to you (£45)
3. You haven't given the gift back, so you are £45 better off because of their gift and the subsequent refund.

I hope your daughters health improves. She must be so disappointed not to be going on the trip. But I'm afraid that I can see how her relatives feel that you have kept the gift for yourself.

But I am not better off. I am also in deficit.

Your deficit is not their problem.

But as a proportion you are much less in deficit than the others. If I’ve understood properly, they have had nothing back and you’ve had roughly 50%.

I also agree that as the parent, there is an argument for you taking on all the loss.

You cannot morally give somebody a gift and then call the police and accuse of theft because they no longer have the gift. When you give a gift you relinquish there rights to that property...

Also nobody has asked me for anything back even.... just called the police. That is bizarre behaviour

You have not understood it correctly and my deficit is their grandchild, nieces problem so I wouldn’t be so self centred

When you give a gift you relinquish there rights to that property

Not if it is for a specific purpose. Like if you give wedding presents for a wedding that doesn’t go ahead they get returned.

But your overall loss is less than it would have been had it not been for their gift!

Had they not given the gift, you would have been (say) £200 in deficit. Because you've benefited from the refund of their original gift, you are only in deficit of (again, say) £155. So you are £45 better off than if they hadn't originally gifted £50 towards the trip. You have benefited personally as a result of the gift.

No, I only signed up to world challenge for my daughter because of there promised financial support, I would not be in deficiet if it wasn’t for them

There is certainly nothing criminal to what I have done so why call the police?
They should have at least tried to ask me for the money and if that failed they could have tried a civil case although I don’t believe you have a legal right to get a gift back.

They do have a right to get the money back because it isn’t a gift. It’s a payment for a purpose which no longer exists. A lot of people have explained this to you. It’s a gift in the sense that it’s gratuitous but they do have the right to get their money back now. You withholding it could be construed as theft though that is pretty harsh.

Whether the police can be bothered with any of this for £300 when your daughter is so poorly is a different matter.

The money paid to World Challenge, was refunded (at 90%), and should be paid back to those who paid (or in your words gifted it).

Any loans your daughter took from other family members are still outstanding, and it's up to your daughter (or you on her behalf) to pay them back. They cannot be repaid from the refund, as that is someone else's money that is being refunded (presumably your in laws).

You cannot decide to pay yourself or your family with someone else's refund.

I'm afraid this is going to leave your daughter very much out of pocket, but it her loss to bear (or yours on her behalf of you choose), nobody else's.

Sad situation, but there it is. Family may have been more inclined to let it ride if your DD hadn't decided ded to cut contact.

Have you or your daughter actually communicated with each person that has donated and that hasn't had money back yet? (And not through the grandmother, actually directly). I'd be pretty pissed off if I knew the trip had been cancelled and some people had been refunded and I hadn't.

Everyone needs to be paid back in full and you need to take the hit for the 10% unless the people donating were explicitly told that if it didn't go ahead they wouldn't get 10% back.

Thank you for your advice.

I think this just shows that they care so little for her welfare she was very right to cut them out of her life for good.

They gave her money to support her trip and she cut off contact with them? That’s not very nice.

And it was not somebody else’s refund. It was ours and we chose what was best for my daughter to do with it.

She cut off contact because of abuse. I explicitly said it was unconnected. Don’t you dare judge my child. She is a kind soul