1. Joined TLC Lottery in 2008 – brief was to introduce PLAY AS YOU EARN – payment of lottery subscription through payroll

2. From 2000 – 2008 worked for BEN – Motor & Allied Trades Benevolent Fund
During this time, we passed £1million mark for Payroll Giving
Helped by;
Charity is industry specific so easy to arrange Payroll Giving presentations at Car Manufacturing Plants
Employees saw the benefit of supporting their industry benevolent fund
Various government schemes to promote payroll giving including matched funding at various levels

3. There are very distinct differences though between GIVE AS YOU EARN Inland Revenue Approved Payroll Giving and PLAY AS YOU EARN

4. Deductions are made by the employer pre-tax
GIVE AS YOU EARN
PLAY AS YOU EARN
Deductions are made by the employer
pre-tax
For a Basic Rate Taxpayer a £5 donation costs £4 as the Taxman pays £1
Deductions are made after tax and therefore there is no tax benefit
Therefore with GAYE it literally costs the donor less to give more.
For the donor’s employer’s Payroll Dept. there is a wealth of support out there and GAYE Payroll Giving is seen as a key CSR activity.
Attrition levels are 10% - 20% and average longevity 6 years (source payroll giving monitoring service)
The main drawback of Payroll Giving is
Lack of portability – when the employee leaves employment, their payment stops and according to a Government Paper published in Jan 2013 this cost £6-7million with 60-70% of donors saying they would wish to continue otherwise.
The risk to Payroll Giving is where companies make redundancies or go bust.

5. An example of this was in 2005 when Longbridge closed with the loss of 6,000 jobs at the plant but a further 25,000 jobs in the supply chain – this put a dent in BEN’s payroll giving.

6. In 2007, Peugeot announced the closure of the Ryton Plant in Coventry at a cost of 2,300 jobs
Although many employees found work in automotive and other roles, as payroll giving is not portable, overnight BEN lost a significant chunk of giving.
If these donors had been on DD, provided there was not a long gap between re-employment, the damage may have been limited.

7. My first major TLC Play as you Earn success was in 2009 at Birmingham Chamber of Commerce.
It was well publicised and I did 2 x15 minute presentations per hour to employees based in Chamber House, signing up about 50 of the 100 employees.
In 2010 there was a reorganisation and today we have 3 left.
We tried to convert them to DD but they identified TLC with their employment at the Chamber where they had lost their job.
Would retention have been better on DD?

8. At the same time as we presented to Chamber we were also invited to present to a local business VoiceMobile who sell mobile phone upgrades through a call centre
Originally we did this on Payroll but as with many businesses employing young people in a call centre there is a level of churn and this affected our attrition.
We therefore switched to DD and found that unless the subscriber loses their job, change of employment has little affect therefore improving our attrition from 35% to 15% in this group – this being the TLC average attrition.
With this evidence and given an increasing reluctance from payroll managers to administer an after tax deduction, in 2010 we closed our Payroll Giving
Instead we arrange presentations to employees in their place of work and invite them to complete the standard DD form – I usually hang around for an hour so they can hand forms to me before I go as very few follow in the post or online – despite promises.

9. The most success exercise was at Bloomer Heave Accountants where 10 out of 15 employees signed after a 15 minute presentation – and the company matched each entry.
I will not pretend that it is easy to get a presentation agreed but when in, the results are generally good.
Employers prefer this to payroll as there is no admin for them and it just cost them 15 minutes – but usually this is at the start or end of a staff meeting.

10. Therefore to summarise – as someone with a proven track record in Give as You Earn Payroll, my opinion is that this is not suited to Lottery.
Instead, just get them to fill in a DD form – why complicate matters with no benefit to anyone.
Questions Please