Almost nine in 10 UK charities have at least 10 per cent of their annual income held up by probate issues, new research indicates.

The investment management provider Rathbones Group commissioned market research company Pureprofile to interview senior people at more than 100 charities holding more than £4bn in investments.

The research, carried out in May, found almost all of those polled said they had been affected by probate delays.

Almost half (45 per cent) of these charities said that between 10 and 15 per cent of their income was stuck due to the hold-ups.

A further 39 per cent of those polled said they had between 15 to 20 per cent of their income held up and 14 per cent had between 5 and 10 per cent of their income delayed.

“Eight in 10 senior executives surveyed said these problems with probate are adversely affecting their charity’s recruitment programme,” Rathbones said.

“Worryingly, over half (51 per cent) say it has meant they’ve had to cut back on the vital services they provide. 

“Other negative impacts include having to sell assets, such as property, to fill the financial gap (43 per cent) and having to make redundancies (27 per cent).”

The majority of charity executives interviewed said they expect the logjam in probate processing by HM Courts & Tribunal Service to ease in the future.

Half (50 per cent) believe these delays would improve in the next two years, with 8 per cent saying they thought the situation would get much better, the researchers found.

But more than one-third (36 per cent) believe the issues would stay the same and 14 per cent said they thought it would get worse.

Andy Pitt, head of charities at Rathbones, said: “Significant delays with probate are causing charities to miss out on millions of pounds of income, which they need to be able to fund vital services and life-saving research. 

“The logjam is not only adding to the financial stress of grieving families, with property sales falling through or having to pay interest payments on inheritance tax – but is also resulting in many senior charity executives having to make difficult decisions on how to cope with hindered cash flow.

“They don’t know how long they could be waiting to receive these much-needed funds and it’s impossible to budget or plan for the future.”