There’s a story, much-used among producers of Freakonomics-style literature, about a nursery in Israel that got fed up with parents arriving late to collect their children, and started charging latecomers. What happened? People got even later. Previously, it seems, they had felt guilty about arriving late, because they felt a social obligation to the people… Read more »
Posts By: David Ainsworth
The changing definition of ‘mutuals’
In the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen some movement on the government’s mutuals agenda – the idea, championed by the Cabinet Office, that public services should be spun out into employee-controlled social enterprises which, it says, will be much more efficient at delivering services than the lumbering giants in the state. One announcement, at… Read more »
Government claims over small donations scheme seem a bit optimistic
The government announced last week that it has introduced a bill to Parliament which will bring the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme into law. This new scheme is pretty simple, at heart, and also a pretty good idea: it will allow charities to claim something equivalent to Gift Aid on £5,000 a year in cash… Read more »
Other quangos should follow the Canal and River Trust and become charities
The Canal and River Trust doesn’t yet exist, but it’s already got a partnership with Google. What’s more Google, who’s agreed a partnership to display the towpaths on Google Maps, is one of three major organisations who today agreed to put their support behind the new CRT, which will next month spin out of government… Read more »
Tax relief cap estimates just don’t add up
In the last week, we’ve seen some calculations from the Charities Aid Foundation and Oxford Economics estimating how much the tax relief cap will cost the charity sector. At the moment, the Charities Aid Foundation says it will cost £500m. This has been extrapolated by Oxford Economics to a negative cost to society of £1.5bn.
Problem about measuring charity efficiency won’t be easily solved
Several people in the charity sector have taken the opportunity afforded by the cap on charity tax reliefs recently to have a go at the sector, and whether all charities really deserve the reliefs they have. The first complaint is about the use that charities put their money to. Should you really get tax relief… Read more »
Keeping social finance on the straight and narrow
Last week I interviewed Nick O’Donohoe, chief executive of Big Society Capital, about his targets for the new £600m social lender. What was really interesting was his view of the sector – one that was predicated on the idea that social enterprises and charities should be delivering more services. O’Donohoe’s starting point is one that… Read more »
Clarity at last on tax relief cap, but it’s not good news for charities
I think we have now nailed down the way HM Revenue & Customs thinks its new cap on tax reliefs will work. Firstly, the relief is based on the level of your gift, not the level of tax you paid on that gift. So as soon as your gift hits £50,000, or a quarter of… Read more »
Er hello? Does anyone actually understand how the tax relief cap works?
Last week, I got in touch with HM Revenue & Customs and asked them how their new tax relief cap would work. This new idea – George Osborne’s only mention of charity in the Budget – means that you can’t claim tax relief on more than a quarter of your income, or £50,000, whichever is… Read more »
Scotland’s social enterprises seem to have it made
This year brought a new name for the annual Social Enterprise UK conference – the Social Enterprise Exchange – and a new venue – Glasgow. The conference was hosted in partnership with Social Enterprise Scotland, and it appeared as if around half the delegates were from north of the border. As a result, the whole… Read more »