Miliband helped to swing lunch expenses decision

Finance | Gareth Jones | 18 Jan 2008

Ed Miliband, minister for the third sector, personally attended the meeting at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) that led to the department's u-turn on volunteers' lunch expenses.

The change of policy means that volunteers in receipt of benefits can now claim their lunch expenses back. Volunteering England led the campaign, "Right to reasonable expenses", and was lining up volunteers to send their lunch receipts to DWP in protest. But before this was required, the department made the unexpected u-turn that ensures volunteers on benefits will no longer have to bear the cost of their lunchtime meal.

The issue arose after DWP published its Volunteering Handbook earlier this year, stating that volunteers in receipt of benefits could not claim back lunch as expenses. According to Volunteering England and DWP, this made it appear to charities and volunteers that there had been an amendment to the rules. But in fact, the rule had been in place since Job Seekers Allowance launched; it was simply not widely known about or upheld. The thinking behind the guidelines, according to a spokesperson, was that volunteers receiving benefits would, in principle, be receiving "double provision" by claiming back lunch expenses.

Miliband said: "This rule change responds to the needs of organisations that recruit volunteers and shows the Government's determination to break down the barriers to volunteering."

Directory: Department of Work and Pensions | Office of the Third Sector | Volunteering England

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.