The Rt Hon Tony Blair MP
Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA
17 July 2006
I am writing as Chair of the England Volunteering Development Council following the recent publication by the Department of Work and Pensions of A guide to volunteering while on benefits.
The England Volunteering Development Council was established in 2004 as a high-level representative mechanism for volunteering. The Council engages both with government and opposition parties in order to capture the collective intelligence of volunteer-involving organisations, volunteering infrastructure providers and of volunteers to provide a powerful, coordinated lobby to steer government policy and community action. This year the Council established regional bodies to enhance its ability to deliver its objectives. Currently the Council has 250 members drawn from the voluntary, community, public and private sectors, bringing perspectives from the breadth of volunteering at a professional and personal level including volunteer managers, volunteering infrastructure provides, funders, and policy makers.
For many years the inconsistent approach of local officers in interpreting the guidance on volunteering for people in receipt of benefits has been cited as a major barrier to volunteering. We welcome the publication of the guide as a positive expression of the government’s commitments within Volunteering: Compact code of good practice to ‘actively reduce barriers to volunteering resulting from existing legislation, regulation and policies’.
We are very supportive of your personal commitment to creating an inclusive culture of volunteering within our society. I know that you are well aware of the benefits of volunteering to individuals, as well as to communities, causes and society both at home and abroad. We welcome the impact your knowledge, understanding and commitment has made to the growth of volunteering in recent years.
On the basis of Home office and Department and Work of Pension figures we estimate that there are almost 2,000,000 people in receipt of benefits who volunteer. These volunteers are some of the most marginalised people in our society. For these people especially, volunteering has a major role to play in their lives and personal development. Volunteering enables people living on benefits to feel that they play a valuable part in the life of our nation, contributing to integration, community cohesion and social capital.
I know how difficult it can be to ensure consistency across all policy areas and how the law of unintended consequences can often intervene. In this regard I would like to raise one issue within the guide which is creating a new barrier to volunteering and which will have a major impact on our shared vision for the role for volunteering within society.
Long standing good practice in involving volunteers has involved the payment of out of pocket expenses by volunteer involving organisations. This ensures that no-one is disincentivised from volunteering because of their personal financial circumstances. The new guide is explicit in stating that meal expenses are not allowed. We believe this to be a new and unfair interpretation of the rules, not based on consultation or change to the relevant legislation or regulation.
I am concerned that this new guidance will be socially divisive, with the poorest volunteers being discriminated against. The impact of the guidance could be catastrophic for volunteering given the large number of people that it will affect. If almost 2,000,000 people were to stop volunteering as a result of this one small point, then all of the good work undertaken over the last decade to encourage more people to volunteer would be undone.
I hope you will at this issue in order that the potential implications are avoided. We want to continue to work with you to encourage the development of a culture of voluntarism within our society. I would be very happy to meet with you and relevant ministers to discuss this should this be of assistance to you.
Baroness Hanham of Kensington CBE
Chair
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The Rt Hon John Hutton MP
Ed Miliband MP
