While the government has long professed to want to lead by example on payroll giving, take-up of the mechanism within 15 government departments varies wildly, with most departments faring far worse than the national average.

A Freedom of Information Act request, submitted by payroll giving agency Workplace Giving, found that of 15 government departments, the Department of Education fared best in terms of employee engagement with payroll giving; one in eight employees there use the mechanism.

However, the Cabinet Office - in which the Office of Civil Society sits - was at the lower end of the spectrum, with fewer than 5 per cent of employees giving tax efficiently through their wages.

In organisations where payroll giving is available, the average take-up is 6 per cent.

The department with the lowest proportion of employees making payroll giving donations was the Department for International Development, with just 3.9 per cent of employees partaking.

These public sector workers, however, are still outperforming their representatives in Parliament. Figures revealed earlier this year show take-up of payroll giving among politicians is just 1.4 per cent.

Workplace Giving managing director Peter O’Hara said that the disparity between departments was interesting.

“Departments that we expected to have a higher uptake, such as the Cabinet Office, the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Department for Energy and Climate Change, and the Department for International Development, are actually below the national average,” he said.

“On the other hand, we have to congratulate the Department for Education and the Department for Work and Pensions on achieving fantastic levels of uptake. Employers with a 10 per cent employee uptake or more of payroll giving, have to consistently promote giving from pay on a regular basis and we hope these high-performing departments will share their success stories with others to encourage them  to follow suit.

"We know that a low uptake of the scheme is usually due to lack of awareness among staff rather than a lack of generosity or interest in supporting good causes.”

Government recently opened up a consultation into reforming payroll giving, which was introduced in the days before direct debit, but many in the sector have shown disappointment at the scope of the reforms on the table. 

Civilsociety.co.uk would like to hear your views on payroll giving. To have your say visit LinkedIn where we have posed a number of questions on the topic.

 

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