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 JSA 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. As an organisation you will have to give your volunteers some flexibility, as they will need to visit the Job Centre for meetings and to sign on, and will need to attend interviews when they come up. If an individual is volunteering, then they are entitled to 48 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
DLA 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.

Informing Benefits Advisers
It is good practice to inform volunteers that it is compulsory for volunteers to notify benefits advisers, although the organisation cannot force the issue if the volunteer decides not to disclose this information. Because of negative attitudes and lack of information on the part of advisers, many people feel more comfortable keeping their volunteering secret. As an organisation you have no duty to inform the benefits office of who is volunteering for you, so leave it up to the individual volunteer to decide. Do bear in mind that if someone has not informed the benefits office that they are volunteering, they may be wary of their name or photograph appearing in any publicity, so do always check first before ‘outing’ someone as a volunteer.

For more information, please contact

Volunteering England Information Service
Information@volunteeringengland.org
Freephone/textphone: 0800 028 3304 (M-F, 9.30 – 5.30)
www.volunteering.org.uk/

Volunteering England
Regent’s Wharf
8 All Saints Street
London N1 9RL

Source: http://www.volunteering.org.uk/Resources/goodpracticebank/Information/volunteeringandstatebenefits.htm