There is a lot of confusion over whether volunteering affects an individual's benefits.  This is not helped by the fact that many benefits advisers are poorly informed about volunteering and often give people the wrong advice.  In actual fact the rules are quite simple.

Definition of voluntary work

All benefits rulings agree that voluntary work is work for a not-for-profit organisation, or work for someone who is not a member of your family, where only reasonable expenses are paid.

Job Seeker's Allowance

People on Job Seeker's Allowance can do as much voluntary work as they want as long as they remain available for and are actively seeking work.  This will mean that they will have to show that they are looking for work and applying for jobs where appropriate.  Volunteer-involving organisations will have to give their volunteers some flexibility, as they will need to visit the Job Centre for meetins and to sign on, and will need to attend interviews when they come up.  If an individual is volunteering, then they are entitled to 47 hours' notice if they are asked to attend an interview, and a week's notice before starting work.  These are concessions to the 24 hour notice normally allowed.

Income Support

Volunteering should not affect someone's Income Support as long as they are not receiving any money other than reimbursement of expenses.

Incapacity Benefit

There is a lot of confusion over Incapacity Benefit because there used to be a rule that individuals in receipt of the benefit could only volunteer for 16 hours a week.  This rule no longer applies, although many people are still being told that it does.  If you are in receipt of Incapacity Benefit then you can volunteer for as long as you want.  People often worry that starting to volunteer will automatically trigger an investigation into their need to claim Incapacity Benefit, but in fact this very rarely happens.  Occasionally there is also some confusion about volunteering and 'permitted work' (similar to the old 'therapeutic earnings').  The permitted work rule applies only to paid work and should not affect volunteers.  Claimants should be entitled to volunteer without it being recognised as permitted work.

Disability Living Allowance

Disability Living Allowance is an allowance paid in acknowledgement of the fact that life for someone with a disability may be more expensive - for instance, someone with mobility problems may be reliant on taxis.  Volunteering will not affect whether an individual receives this benefit or not.

Expenses and Benefits

Apart from the Disability Living Allowance, the above benefits are open only to people who are not in paid employment.  Any kind of paid work would jeopardise an individual's right to claim benefits, and they may find that their payments are docked or suspended.  However, expenses do not constitute a payment, so volunteers can receive reimbursement of reasonable out-of-pocket expenses (any expenses that they have incurred because they are volunteering) without their benefits being affected.

In the past there has been some controversy of volunteers in receipt of state benefits and whether they were allowed to have their meal expenses reimbursed.  On 9 October 2006 the Department of Work and Penions announced that they will allow all volunteers to be reimbursed for their meal expenses.  Guidance has been sent to benefit staff to highlight this fact.

It is important to remember that only actual expenses should be reimbursed.  If a volunteer pays £4.50 on travel every day, it might seem easier to round the sum up to £5.00 but this is not a reimbursement of an actual expense and would constitute a payment.  It is a good idea to collect receipts and keep records of what expenses you have received, so that if there is any kind of query it can clearly be shown that you have been reimbursed money rather than been in receipt of a payment.

There have been some problems in the past where volunteer on benefits have been given advance payment (for instance for something that would cost a lot, such as childcare of a weekly travelcard).  The Social Security Amendment (Volunteers) Regulations 2001 clarified income support, Job Seeker's Allowance and Incapacity Benefit rules to make it clear that volunteers can receive advance payment for expenses to be incurred in the future.  It is still a good idea to keep receipts and records, and the volunteer would have to repay the organisation any money that was not spent.

Informing Benefits Advisers

It is compulsory for volunteers to notify benefits advisers of their volunteering.  Occasionally a volunteer may have problems convincing their benefits adviser that they are volunteering and not working.  If this is the case, they should ask their volunteer manager to talk to the benefits adviser on their behalf and provide information about what the organisation does and their role within the organisation.  If the volunteer still has problems then the volunteer manager could send a letter to the benefits office and offer to provide a copy of the volunteer's expenses record (where this is an issue).