Charities: Voluntary Work

(asked on 1st June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on enabling furloughed charity staff to (a) volunteer for their organisation, (b) volunteer for their organisation in a different role from that of their substantive work, (c) volunteer to assist with fundraising and (d) engage in raising funds for their organisation by participating in fundraising events akin to other members of the public.


Answered by
John Whittingdale Portrait
John Whittingdale
This question was answered on 8th June 2020

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is working with other Government departments and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector to identify areas where volunteers can contribute to the COVID-19 response.

To mitigate the risk of fraudulent claims and to protect individuals, the Government made it clear that under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, those furloughed cannot work or volunteer for their own organisation. If workers were allowed to volunteer for their employer, the employer could ask them to work in an effectively full time way while only paying 80% of the wages.

The Government recognises and values the role volunteers are playing in the Covid-19 response and their contribution to broader charitable causes; furloughed employees can take part in volunteer work, provided that it does not provide services or generate revenue for their employer or another company associated or linked to their employer.

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