About the CFDG
Election Debate Audio Recording
To listen to CFDG's election debate please press the play button. You can skip question by pressing the forward button. Please see list of questions below.
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Q1. What are the measures you will be taking to rebuild the country's finances - cutting public expenditure and public services or increasing taxation or both? What will the impact be on the poor and vulnerable in society?
Q2. Social Investment, which has been touted as the new way of financing organisations, concentrates on borrowing. However, charities are not set up solely for today’s beneficiary but also need to be mindful of future beneficiaries and should not prefer one over the other. Difficult decisions obviously need to be made but current ideas on social investment appear to ignore the future beneficiary. What are the panel’s views on this?
Q3. In recent years the Charity Tax Group has noted a growing challenge within Government to the general principle of tax reliefs for charities. In particular, the Government seems reluctant to implement existing provisions in the VAT directive that would reduce the tax burden on charities who come together to form a cost-sharing members’ group where one charity provides back-office services to the others.
Are you committed to protecting and promoting the special status of charities when it comes to tax reliefs? Will you work in partnership with charities to reduce the burden of taxation and to implement simple measures such as EU exemption on cost sharing, which will help the sector share resources without incurring an additional tax burden?
Q4. At my organisation we currently have around 65% of our income from public sector or local authority grants or contracts, and if the planned cuts for each of them (between 10% for Stockton and 2% for Newcastle) happen, then this will equate to a loss of income of about £136,500. For this we are expected to deliver the same service!
What do the ministers representing our charities plan to do to mitigate the forthcoming impact of the recession on the public contracting to the Third Sector?
Q5. In the year 2000, world leaders made a promise to the world to halve extreme poverty by 2015. The UN calculates that to reach this each country would need to give just 0.7% of national income as aid – a sum first pledged by rich countries in 1970. How will your party ensure that this target is met?
Q6. If you win the election would your party simplify the Gift Aid procedure to reduce the administration for charities and to increase the amount of tax recovered for charitable purposes? What do you think would be the best way to do that?
Q7. Over 50% of our charity’s voluntary income last year was donated by cheque. What is being done and which group is responsible to develop a truly viable, cost-effective, simple to use and trusted alternative to cheque payments, which the Payments Council have proposed to abolish by 2018?