Information for Individuals
What is Payroll Giving?
Payroll Giving enables you to give to any UK charity straight from your gross salary (before tax is deducted), giving immediate tax relief on those donations. This means that if you donate £10 each month it would cost you only £7.80 (if you are a standard rate taxpayer or £6 for higher rate taxpayers) and, yet, it will be worth as much as £20 to the charity. More information can be found at www.payrollgivinggrants.org.uk.
Which charities can I give to?
You can give to any UK charity through the payroll, or you can split your donations between a couple or more charities. All you will have to do is fill in a brief form with the amount you want to give and who you want to give it to.
If you would like to find out more about charities in the UK, it's worth visiting the Charity Commission link to
www.charity-commission.gov.uk website to do a quick search.
New reasons for giving
Until December 2006, a new Home Office-funded initiative, the Payroll Giving Grants programme is rewarding small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that set up Payroll Giving schemes, with a grant of up to £500. What’s more, the first £10 of each employee’s monthly donations will be matched, £ for £, for a period of six months (up until March 2007).
Will my employer be eligible for a grant?
If you work for an organisation with fewer than 500 employees, whether it be a business or a charity, and your employer signs up to Payroll Giving before the end of December 2006, your organisation will be eligible to receive a one-off grant of up to £500. Grants are tiered according to the number of employees, as below:
Organisation size
1 - 199 employees - £300
200 - 249 employees - £400
250 - 499 employees - £500
Your employer can choose to keep this grant or to donate all (or part) of it to charity.
Grants will be backdated to those employers that have signed up since 06 April 2004 and before the launch of this programme.
Why give through the payroll?
Payroll Giving is an easy, tax-effective way to give. What's more, if you are working for an SME that signs up between April 2004 and the end of 2006, the first six months of your donations will be doubled, up to a value of £10. So, in short, it costs you less to give more.
Payroll donations are great for the good causes you care about, providing charities with the regular, reliable income stream that enables them to plan and budget for the future.
And, with grants of up to £500 on offer for your employer - everybody wins!
What will my employer need to do?
All employers have to do is to sign a contract with a Payroll Giving Agency (PGA) who will transmit donations on their behalf. Professional Fundraising Organisations (PFO) are available to help them promote the scheme to employees.
It is a very low cost, low administration scheme and the grants should cover any set up costs that you may incur
See if your employer already has a scheme available, or if not ask them to set one up.
How to add Action Not Disability to an existing scheme:
If your employer already has a payroll giving, ask your professional fundraising organisation (PFO) to Action Not Disability to your scheme. If you don't have a PFO, see www.payrollgivinggrants.org.uk where they have an up to date list.
*Information from www.payrollgivinggrants.org.uk.