Government launches bill to reform Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme
Melanie May | 19 September 2016 | News
The Government has launched a bill to reform the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme.
The Small Charitable Donations and Childcare Payments Bill seeks to simplify the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme, which launched in 2012 and enables charities to claim a Gift Aid style payment on small cash donations of up to £20.
At Budget 2015, the Government announced an increase in the annual donations limit on which a charity is able to claim: from £5,000 to £8,000 from April 2016, and then brought forward a planned review into the scheme with a call for evidence launched last December. The formal consultation finished on 1st July.
The Bill seeks to widen access to GASDS, and proposes the inclusion of contactless payments, as well as relaxing the time in which a charity must have been in existence before it can participate in the scheme by removing a number of eligibility criteria to allow more smaller and newer charities to benefit sooner, and amending the community buildings rules to allow more charities to benefit from the work they carry out in their local communities.
However, while the proposed changes have been broadly welcomed, the bill has also received criticism from the sector for not going far enough.
Andrew O’Brien, head of policy and engagement, Charity Finance Group said:
“If a bill is going to be presented to Parliament, it should be something that can substantially improve the scheme. This bill simply doesn’t pass this test. This bill offers only minor improvements that are not of the scale required to make this scheme work better for small charities and achieve its core objectives.
“Expanding donations to contactless payments and loosening the eligibility criteria are welcome steps. However, the biggest hole in this Bill is the lack of any changes to the matching requirement, which is a big barrier to small charities making the most of this scheme and making claiming worthwhile. Contactless payments is also only likely to help the largest charities currently, whilst expanding the scheme to cover any donation under £20 would cut red tape for small charities and encourage more charities to fundraise and engage in the Gift Aid system.”
A statement from the Institute of Fundraising said:
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“The GASDS is an excellent idea but at the moment it is not working effectively enough and take up is too low, especially among smaller charities. We have previously raised concerns and called for reform to make sure that more charities are able to benefit, in particular around the matching requirement, the types of donations covered and raising awareness of the scheme more widely within the sector. We hope that this Bill is a chance to improve the scheme and plan to engage closely as it makes its way through Parliament.”
The bill is due for its second reading in the House of Commons on 11th October.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.