MSE News: Plan for charity giving at ATMs and tills

Former_MSE_Guy

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"Shoppers could make donations every time they pay for items by bank card or use a cashpoint under Government plans ..."

Read the full story:
Plan for charity giving at ATMs and tills

Rosamund

I think this is dreadful and tantamount to begging! I support a couple of charities on a regular basis and I know where the money goes. I would like to know how the donations will be apportioned or will it be on the same basis as the lottery donations "good causes" a few of which have been more than a little dodgy!!

cally6008

Charity begins at home.

People who are in debt should not be forced/shamed/or whatever into giving money to charities when they themselves are watching where every penny goes.

Look at the UK ... government gives (x) amount of cash abroad to help with disasters and stuff leaving the UK economy in the dirt and struggling.

licky_face

What are the odds that the money raised from these schemes is used to directly replace funding for charities who have had their taxpayer based funding pulled by the Government as part of the spending cuts? So in effect it is acting as a (albeit optional) tax rise. Not that I think these charities shouldn't be funded, however it's the dishonesty that gets to me.

And yes I agree it is effectively begging, if there's one way to guarantee I won't donate to your cause it's to wait until I have got my wallet out and then starting asking me to spare a few quid.

ElkyElky

I only ever donate to smaller local charities. The bigger ones are busy helping themselves aswell as others, have you seen how much some of the CEO's get paid?! Well in excess of £100,000. Not only are you donating to the cause but you're also donating to the directors themselves, paying for their lavish lifestyle.

I agree with the others, this is no different than if a Big Issue seller were to approach you at a cash machine and harass you while you take your hard earned cash out of the machine.

Paul_Herring

1) Should I choose to 'give' using this, do I get to choose which charity gets my money? Thought not.
2) I already [strike]get stolen[/strike] give a substantial amount of money unwillingly to charities each year through my pay packet, and through every purchase I make. It's called tax. The government uses quite a bit of that money to subsidise charities. Until this stops I refuse to give even more money willingly.

For example the fake-charity BookStart started shroud-waving because the government threatened to withdraw it's funding. Little mention was made that the government's contribution is only 25% of their total income, and given that, it's unlikely that the 'charity' would have gone under.

Another: ASH, which receives significant government funding, uses tax payers money to lobby government to hector 20% of the population.

These are just two 'charities' which I would refuse to donate to, given the chance. Unfortunately I'm not given that option.

Barnardo's is 78% funded by the government.

As one person pointed out

If a charity can't survive by good will alone then it deserves to fail -- it is taking resources from where they could be better used.

pawnbroker_2

I am heartily sick and tired of this government already.

Only recently (this week) they gave £40 Million of our money to the UN to waste yet could not afford £13 Million for OUR kids books.

Why not give it to UK based charites ?

Strange the government will not allow us to say where the £7 Billion International AId should go but we can choose at a cashpoint where afew pennies go !

We as a country are already giving far too much away, which we cannot afford, to our own detriment.

It really is time the Government and MP's took a glimpse of the real world.

peter_the_piper

We give more so that they can cut the overseas aid budget and still say that overall charity giving is up.

Paul_Herring

pawnbroker wrote: »

Only recently (this week) they gave £40 Million of our money to the UN to waste yet could not afford £13 Million for OUR kids books.

They did a U-turn on that £13M. (And note that the article claims the government were axing the free books, when they were doing no such thing as I pointed out above.)

globetraveller

I really do not like this idea and will have no intention of donating money this way. I will decide which charity I want to give my money too.

JHC

The government seems to think we need to be nagged at every turn to give money to charity. Yet it's more tax-efficient to give via "Gift Aid" and such politically-inspired schemes will probably not achieve much. This - like the whole "Big Society" idea - is essentially a smokescreen to distract people from the forthcoming spending cuts and tax hikes.