I’ve recently done some more work in the planning of the HPWA, hopefully this will help silence the accusations of fraud that have been leveled at me and it will also mean that the HPWA will be taken more seriously in its activities. However I’ve discovered that not all charities can, or must, register with the Charities Commission. To begin with the income of the charity must be over £5000 per year. Also not all voluntary organizations which are run by gift donations of money can be defined as “charities”. To be defined as such the organization has to meet certain criteria and it means we, as a group, (I saw “we” because I don’t expect to be the only one involved forever) must ask ourselves some questions. The Charity Commission says that an organization can only be a charity if it has aims which are for the benefit of the public, and we have to demonstrate public benefit, see: http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Start_up_a_charity/Guidance_on_registering/Demonstrating_public_benefit_index.aspx As you can see there are many linked documents which will mean that it will be necessary to do some research, but really in this case the answer is simple and obvious: Of course the HPWA’s goals are for the benefit of the public. Nobody can possibly question that! The objective of the HPWA is to provide care, counseling and support for Hospital Porters, ex-Hospital Porters and their families. And any society which has a healthy Hospital Portering Service is a healthy society in every other way too; it’s that simple.
So for now I’m not in a place to register the HPWA as a charity under the 2011 Charities Act for England and Wales. It’s possible that we may qualify under the “Excepted” or “Exempt” category, but I’m not sure yet, see: http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Start_up_a_charity/Do_I_need_to_register/Excepted_charities_index.aspx More later!
