Expenses

Paying expenses to volunteers is common practice for many organisations. For others however, expense payments are apparently of scope due to funding restrictions. Some organisations, even major nationals, pay expenses but risk falling foul of legislation. This is a brief guide to best practice in paying volunteers expenses.

Key Points

• Only reimburse volunteers for expenses actually incurred in the course of their volunteering
• If you can't afford volunteer expenses now, cost them into future funding applications, or consider applying for a small grant specifically to cover expenses
• Ensure adequate record keeping of expense payments. This is evidence for funders, and it covers your volunteers back in the case of Benefits Agency or Tax enquiries

Why Pay Expenses?

• In order to include people on low incomes
• Paying expenses can also increase a volunteers sense of being a part of the organisation
• If a volunteer doesn't want to accept the expense payments, get them to claim their expenses and donate them back to the organisation
  

What should we Pay?

• Only reimburse actual expenses
• If you give volunteers extra cash, or set amounts that don't reflect actual costs, you are seriously at risk of falling foul of minimum wage legislation. This also puts volunteers' benefits at risk and can leave them liable for taxation

Reasonable expenses include:

• Travel to and from the place of volunteering
• Travel in the course of volunteering
• Childcare
• Food and refreshments while volunteering
• Postage, telephone calls, etc paid for by volunteer
• Cost of equipment, protective clothing, etc
• Attendence at training events and courses

Environmental considerations:

Out of kindness to the environment many organisations encourage their volunteers to use public transport, their legs or a bicycle to get to their voluntary work.