We may have touched on this before but I have had a email from the Charity Commissioners this morning offering advice to charity trustees on how to handle matters when the proposed cessation of cheques happens in 2018. They do like to get in early but it could be a serious matter for charities that rely on small donations to survive. Most of the income for our village hall comes from renting out rooms and the payments are usually made by cheque. We will have serious financial problems setting up BACs payments for everyone. Many local clubs etc who use us will not have the expertise or capability to set up other methods of payment. As for paying our bills .... It'll be a nightmare!
Most organisations at our level and all of our users have a bank account with two out of four nominees having to sign the cheques. Trusting one person to authorise direct payments is a questionable exercise. Irregular amounts because of varying times they are there and the frequency of use (some only use it three or four times a year) and thus almost impossible to monitor on direct debit I am at a loss to know just how we will cope. Advice from the Commissioners is lengthy and frankly not very helpful.
Paypal or similar may be an option but even that can be authorised by anyone with the password so the double signature rule would be hard to maintain and trying to get the elderly (usually) people who sit on the committees to understand the concept is going to be a struggle. Equally they will find it hard to pay cash and I for one do not want to be running out on a ten mile round trip to the bank every other day to pay in, nor do I want other peoples cash hanging around the house.
The whole thing is easy for large organisations but the small people will suffer additional costs which in the end will have to be passed on with a resultant drop in income for the charities like us. It could be the end for many small charities.
