Volunteering - claiming expenses.

Simple travelling to a nearby location I didn't claim for, but occasionally had to go further afield so would have train fare paid or a mileage cost. Other than that it was reimbursement for things I paid for - photocopying and postage mostly.

Another point I would make is that I know that all the people i help when i volunteer gain from my input but I know that I benefit and I'm sure most other volunteers do too

As a former volunteer organiser I always encouraged my volunteers to claim expenses for the reasons stated in other posts

I have volunteered with two organisations, one for elderly and the other for families. Both involved travelling to appointments, outings and the travelling to and from each service user's home. I didn't claim standard travel costs. When support involved travelling further afield or tickets for concerts etc I claimed for those. Many volunteers claimed on the same principles and others claimed for everything. I was never aware of any negativity towards anyone claiming all they were entitled to. £100 a month is quite a sum for volunteers to pay out. I'd claim and then make a donation if and when I wanted to.

I used to not claim my expenses, but was told that I should as the organisation had a budget for volunteers' expenses and if it wasn't used, they'd lose it. I used to claim then give it back as a donation.

Not exactly volunteering, but I was a very poorly paid foster parent, many years ago. Most of the short-term children that we fostered turned up with only the clothes on their backs, and had to be kitted out. Friends and neighbours sometimes donated items to us, but we regularly bought a lot of clothing. No charity shops then, either.
It was possible to claim expenses, but it was such a palaver that we never bothered.
It's mind-boggling to see what foster parents are paid nowadays.

What a thought provoking thread.
I was a school governor for 8 years from 1995-2003. Never once claimed expenses. Then an Independant Custody Visitor from 2003-2006, never claimed.
In 2009 until 2014 I volunteered on a local hospital radio and from 2019 to today I volunteer at a Trussell Trust Foidbank - once again I've never claimed.
All your replies have made me realise I should have/should be.
Thank you

If you have to "go" and volunteer, you could claim money for transport / fuel. I volunteer from home (jewellery and writing / editing / proof-reading); but I don't claim expenses for the beads and associated things, or the internet fee.

I worked as a volunteer with the NHS and a large university. I was brainwashed at an early age as to how cash strapped the NHS always is. At each meeting I was offered an expenses claim sheet and encouraged to use it. However, I also had a free bus pass and opted to travel that way rather than use my car. What did disappoint me, though, was the number of volunteers who jumped on the taxi\hotel bandwagon. This was often married with 'well, they're having my services for free '. Big deal. When I was once asked about this I was accused of being a halo hunter. I did learned a lot in both of these establishments and have no regrets of these years but..... I could really have done without the discovery of the huge and almost unbelievable waste that goes on. Not a lack of funding but simp!y so badly disbursed.

I worked for several organisations recruiting and supporting a diverse volunteer cohort. I think we have to be careful with the ‘it doesn’t feel right’ comments. Many of the very valuable volunteers I worked with wouldn’t have been able to contribute and gain skills without bus fares etc being reimbursed. If we don’t want volunteering to become a middle class occupation we should recognise that some cannot afford to be out of pocket and may be embarrassed or deterred by others making such comments

Perhaps the trickiest situations are those which are local and run on a shoestring, so it might feel churlish to claim. There probably isn’t even a policy in place. Churches rely on lots of volunteers, most of whom do not claim anything, either because they can afford not to, or because they know how tight the budget is. For a while I did a weekly newssheet, which cost me in time, paper and ink. I could have claimed, I am sure, but I just gave less in donations. As someone pointed out, I could have had expenses and donated them back with gift aid! I hadn’t thought of that, and it would have produced more, in fact.

Its a valid point though that the cost of having volunteers within an organisation shouldn't be ignored so I maybe should claim and donate it straight back.

I worked for 45 years in a job where goodwill went unrewarded and guess I must have got used to it, so don't feel it any different not claiming expenses. I'm just happy to help out. ?

I'm paid to work for a charity and it still feels wrong to claim expenses on top!

Unfortunately I have had to give up my volunteering. I did it for 19 years, and miss it. Sometimes I did ask for my parking money back, but felt awkward about it. A friend who volunteered for a different charity, had to give up driving herself there and back, so had a taxi, which she never claimed for. It must have been expensive!

When I was treasurer of an organisation, we asked volunteers to fill in their expenses on the form and to indicate if they wanted to be reimbursed or not. Many volunteers did not claim their expenditure, but the true cost of the activities was transparently recorded.

I have managed volunteers throughout my working life and would always strongly encourage volunteers to claim expenses. The OP is right to say that it does reflect the true costs of the charity. It helps when applying for grants and funding,

I've volunteered for various charities and claim expenses, then donate it back to the charity (or a different one). As I'm able to Gift Aid donations, this means the charity actually gets money back in addition to what has been paid out! As hon Treasurer for a couple of the charities, I similarly encourage others to do the same...plus as has already been said, it's important to show both costs and income for correct accounting. It does also depend on the amount involved, so I probably wouldn't claim for small amounts.

As a ex-volunteer myself, I agree with NanaRose. My income is low, and as a volunteer counsellor I had to pay for supervision and travel expenses. My travel was paid but supervision wasn't so eventually I had to give up as I couldn't afford this. My hard earned and fought for expensive training was then wasted. It's very important that people should claim expenses and that those who don't actually need to, realise the reasons why they should too. Then they can donate to whichever charity they want.

I have done a lot of different volunteering in the past and did 10 years of 3 days a week taking patients to hospital in my car.These were long distances in rural yorkshire to various different hospitals. I claimed for fuel mileage which covered the cost of the actual fuel but would not have covered the deprecation etc for the car which I was satisfied to do. But with the high cost of fuel now it would be different, I gave my time free and quite often went out before 7am to ensure a patient got to hospital for early appointments, whatever the weather. I knew that the patients had a better journey in a car than in the ambulance , more comfortable and took 3 or occasionally 4 people at a time rather than the 8 in the ambulance so usually meant they had less time to wait at the hospital.

An interesting thread! I volunteer for two very small charities and don't claim expenses for either, but if it were a larger charity/business, I can see that one should, and donate back if wished.
One of the things I do is cook a huge pan of curry every week for the Street Food Project, feeding homeless people/people in need 365 days a year. I'm pretty sure that people can claim the food costs if they want to, as the organisers are very sensitive to people's circumstances. But they have struggled to keep it going over the years and I wouldn't want to add extra cost.
The other is one afternoon a week in a small charity's shop; I can walk there, so feel that I don't need any expenses even when I opt to drive and park (when it's raining and/or I'm feeling lazy!!

I agree that volunteering expenses should be claimed for the reasons explained by others above. If you don't need the money you can donate it back or to another charity. You can avoid the 'raised eyebrow' problem by proposing that claiming should be an explicit policy to enable others to volunteer. I chaired a substantial charitable trust for several years and always claimed.

Why not claim the expenses and then donate them back to the charity? Silly paperwork but maybe then everyone would be happy.

We volunteer for a cat charity, and don't normally claim any expenses, most of us don't at out local branch and no one is paid. We incur regular fuel and phone costs. However with fuel prices increasing we are going to claim for the cost of heating the run this winter.

Expenses would be:
mileage - usually the organisation has a set rate, but otherwise the amount set by HMRC as standard for mileage claims
car parking
fares
phone calls (which may depend on the phone system you use)
materials such as art & craft supplies
food & drink that you are providing
cost of an activity when you accompany someone
specialist clothing & equipment
courses that you are required or requested to do & the cost of some certificates - for instance a friend has to show they can operate a chainsaw safely in order to fell trees for a local wildlife charity - I had to keep up a current First Aid certificate at on point - and a lot of sports coaching needs up-to-date training.
I'm sure there's more!

For some years I have had to do some printing at home, and agree that quantifying printer cartridges is difficult. I told the committee that I would claim for a ream of paper, and then take a few sheets for myself in lieu of ink.