Volunteer Expenses Policy
September 2021
Purpose
This policy is intended to provide a clear set of rules for all volunteers supporting The Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust to ensure that volunteers do not inadvertently incur expenses which we can neither justify nor reimburse. We need at all times to ensure that our expenditure is relevant to our charitable objectives and can be fully justified therefore all expenses should be reasonable and kept to a minimum.
Who the policy applies to
All volunteers working with The Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust.
Why we have this policy
The work of The Trust is critically dependent on our extensive network of volunteers and contributors. We are very grateful to our volunteers for not only providing their time freely, but also choosing to meet incidental expenses from within their own resources i.e.: at no charge to The Trust. Otherwise, we could not afford to deliver our programmes. Our general approach on expenses, therefore, is that reimbursement will be at the Trustee’s discretion only, based on their assessment of The Trust’s requirements, the available budget and the volunteer’s own needs.
Details
- Any Expenses that will be incurred in a currency other than GBP must be agreed in advance by the Trustees
- All volunteers must claim expenses by completing the Volunteer Expenses Claim Form (Excel) available from a Trustee or the Admin support group.
- Only expenses submitted on the relevant form and correctly authorised will be reimbursed. Please use this form to submit your expenses.
- Details should be given of the meeting or function attended and claims should be accompanied by invoices or VAT receipts if available.
- All claims should be signed by the Volunteer and the authorising Trustee. If this is not possible i.e.: the volunteer submits their claim via email, the email should be attached to confirm the claim and then the authorizing Trustee can sign and submit the form to finance.
- All claims should be made within 3 months of expenses being incurred.
- Only actual costs incurred can be reimbursed, expenses do not represent a reward or compensation for loss of time.
- Activities likely to incur expenses for volunteers should ideally be identified and authorised by a Trustee in advance. The Trust can accept no liability for expenses that result from activities not agreed beforehand.
- In some cases, volunteers’ regular employers may be happy to absorb costs such as postage, telephone calls or photocopying – volunteers should clear this first with their employers and should inform the Admin Support Group to enable us to be aware of all those providing help to the Trust.
- Travel on public transport should always be booked as far in advance as possible in order to take advantage of the maximum range of discounts. The Trust will pay for standard class travel only. Where a train journey is expected to last more than 3 hours it may be appropriate to consider travel by air, in these cases the lowest cost operator should be sought (e.g. EasyJet). Travel should be ‘off peak’, wherever possible, and should take advantage of the various discounts available.
- Where the use of prepay ‘oyster’ cards or similar electronic tickets for public transport are cheaper per journey than paying cash then they may be used even though a receipt cannot be provided. Please register your oyster card online prior to incurring the expense so that you can send the journey history as the backup with the expense claim. The expenses claim must be itemised for each journey and the relevant cost. Do not claim for the ‘top-up’ cost of the card. Where the above is not possible then please note approvers will use the below fare guide as a reference to reimburse and check expenses.
- Where contactless payment is used to pay for travel then please use the following guidance to validate the expense claim.
- The standard car mileage rate for volunteers working for The Trust is 40 pence per mile. Any deviations from these rates must by authorised by a Trustee and recorded via email.
- All volunteers that hold Business Class motor insurance will be automatically covered for their work on behalf of The Trust, but if their insurance is limited to social and domestic use then they will have to discuss their role as a Trust volunteer with their insurance company to ensure that they are fully covered. Volunteers will be asked to show valid Business Class motor insurance cover or sign the relevant section on the Expenses form to confirm that they have agreed their driving on Trust business with their insurers before we can reimburse mileage costs.
Reimbursement of Expenses
All volunteer’s expenses will be reimbursed by cheque or bank transfer. Please add your bank details to the Expense Claim form to enable a bank transfer to be made.
Other relevant policies
