Petition backed by the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO)
In just under a week, a Malvern-led e-petition on the Number 10 website is rapidly climbing up the rankings.
The e-petition, which asks Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling to raise the HMRC limit for fuel reimbursement for volunteer drivers from 40p to 50p, has already attracted 200 signatures and has moved up to the 529th most popular e-petition out of 6,340.
Currently, HMRC allows charities to reimburse volunteer drivers for their fuel at a maximum rate of 40p per mile. With petrol and diesel prices so high, this rate no longer is adequate to cover the volunteers’ fuel costs. Charities cannot reimburse volunteers in any other way without creating taxable income. Therefore the threshold should rise to 50p per mile.
Harriett Baldwin, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for West Worcestershire set up the petition and a Facebook group in response to a request for help from Jen Boyer, Chair of local charity Community Action. She said “I would like to encourage readers to add their names to the e-petition by logging on to http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/charitydrivers/”
Harriett Baldwin has also written to Alistair Darling but as of today has not yet received a response.
Filed under: Campaigns, Parliamentary Candidates | Tagged: Conservatives, Harriet Baldwin, Voluntary Sector, West Midlands, West Worcestershire
