Volunteering England launches lunch expenses campaign

To this end, Volunteering England is calling on the Department of Work and Pensions to:

·         Amend and reissue the guidance, confirming the right of volunteers to be reimbursed for all reasonable expenses including lunch. 

·         Ensure that they and their partners in the UK Volunteering Forum are consulted on any future guidance that is issued on volunteering matters.

Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, said:
 “Volunteering is a vital way in which all members of society can contribute something back to the communities in which they live. It allows people who would not normally meet to work together on important and worthwhile projects, and create more social cohesion. Everybody can benefit from being involved in voluntary work: it gives us all the chance to develop ourselves personally and professionally.
“People who are unemployed should not be prevented on volunteering by not being given lunch expenses. Not only does volunteering give them new work experiences from which to draw in employment, it is also something that they can do positively just as well as someone who is employed. We should not be discouraging anyone from this activity, or prejudicing anyone against taking part.”

Christopher Spence CBE, Chief Executive of Volunteering England, said: “It seems absolutely ludicrous that one arm of government is promoting volunteering as a means of increasing social cohesion while another is excluding people from participation.  Lunch expenses have long been accepted as a legitimate expense to reimburse and nothing has changed in the relevant legislation or regulations. Our research has shown that a key barrier to volunteering is the concern of being out of pocket as a result and it is grossly unfair and divisive that better-off volunteers will be able to claim back for their lunchtime snack while those on benefits are left out of pocket or go hungry. I would strongly urge the department to reconsider and re-issue its guidance to avoid further confusion.

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Notes to Editors

·          For more information and to arrange interviews, call Cat Dean on 020 7520 8932 or email cat.dean@volunteeringengland.org. or Sonya Roberts on 020 7520 8965, email Sonya.roberts@volunteering.org For out of hours press enquiries, contact Sonya Roberts on 07952 128057.

·          The DWP guidance is available to view on http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/dwp/2006/volunteering/vg1.pdf

·          To view Volunteering England’s initial responses to the guidance, visit: http://www.volunteering.org.uk/newsandevents/mediacentre/.

·          The EDM expresses concern “that those least able to afford volunteering are more likely to be discouraged from doing so if reasonable expenses are not provided; notes that volunteering should not be considered `basic needs'; and calls on the Department for Work and Pensions to promote volunteering as a benefit to job seekers and their communities, for which volunteers should have the right to claim reasonable and essential expenses.”

Volunteering England’s aims are to increase the quality, quantity, contribution and accessibility of volunteering throughout England; secure and support an England-wide network of quality volunteer development agencies, promoting and enabling volunteering and community involvement; undertake research, policy and development activity; and provide grants, support and advice to sustain and develop volunteering. It understands the term volunteering to include formal activity undertaken through public, private and voluntary organisations as well as informal community participation.

 

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