Subscriptions

The Group’s income is generated through a combination of subscriptions paid by young people and fundraising. In order to remain financially viable, subscriptions are charged to ensure we cover the cost of running the group. Fundraising helps towards affording for equipment, group development projects and supplementing activities.

How much are subs?

Subscription fees
Subscriptions are payable for each section as follows:

What does Subscriptions cover?

Each year, every Member of the Group is required to pay a Membership Subscription. These fees ensure that financially we are able to run safe, effective and efficient Beaver, Cub, Scout and Explorer Programmes for your child(ren). Alongside this, we sometimes have extra charges for special activities, camps and events.

Included in the subscription are the following items:

• Cost of Headquarters services to the Movement and the costs of organising and administering the Association, and to meet the Association’s obligations to World Scouting.
• Cost of the local Scout District & Region.
• Cost of the Group to cover administration, building insurance, personal accident and medical expenses insurance, utility costs, maintaining our scout hall, maintaining, repairing and replacing our tents and equipment and to subsidise certain group events.
• Cost of the section weekly activities including materials, books, badges and prizes.

(This is list is not exhaustive and just covers the key items)

Throughout the year there will be the need to raise additional funds for the Group and section activities such as camps etc. These other costs within the Group are met by: Parent(s)/Guardian(s); or fundraising events, grants and donations.

How to Pay?

They can be paid by monthly instalments by Direct Debit, via GoCardless & Online Scout Manager (OSM).

• Beavers, Cubs & Scouts have 4 monthly payments (August – December).

Our only method is via Online Payments by Direct Debit, as it means leaders do not have to deal with payments & bank statements! This means they can spend more time providing fun & adventure to our young people. It makes life easier for you, as you no longer have to worry about making bank transfers (changing the reference each time), writing cheques or finding cash.

The online system we use for managing payment is ensures that you (the parent) knows exactly what is happening and why. You’ll receive a number of emails reminders including; when payments are due, to approve payments, notify that payment is about to happen and when a payment has been initiated or is overdue. This ensures you are always kept in the loop at all times.

Direct Debit Types:

Subscription: This is the simple “hands off” method, where you sign-up to the entire schedule of payments and everything happens automatically. The system will always keep you informed about the state of payments etc through emails.

One-Off: This is for parents who would like to authorise each payment themselves. When you receive an email requesting a payment to be made, you simply login (via the email link) and click the “Pay Now” button.

For parents who would like to pay for you child’s subscription in one go then you can click on all four “Pay Now” buttons which will initiate each payment immediately.

The system gives you complete oversight through emails (and logging into OSM) letting you know what’s happening and why. You always have the option to cancel your direct debit from within OSM and payments are protected by the Direct Debit guarantee.

More information about how the OSM payment system works (from a parent perspective), please watch the following video – Parent Portal – Online Payments.

Please Note: Online Scout Manager and GoCardless charge a small transaction fee, which is added onto the monthly instalment. This is why your monthly instalment amounts won’t add up to your yearly fee. We hope that the ease and simplicity of the new system is worth the small extra cost.

Gift Aid

Gift Aid is a simple government initiative, which allows the group to increase the value of your donations at no extra cost to you. For every pound given we can get an extra 25 pence from HM Revenue and Customs, helping your donations go further. This will really help the group’s finances. When you setup your payments via OSM, it should ask you to complete this declaration (if you haven’t done so already).

Process for Payment Collection

To ensure that monies are paid as stated in this policy the following course of action will take place with the following timescale:

1. You will receive a reminder email (a Payment Request) beforehand notifying you about an upcoming payment. Emails will be sent out to inform you that either a payment requires approval or that a payment will be initiated on the date specified (depending on how you have setup the Direct Debit). After which, once the payment has been approved (by you) or the due date passes, you will receive an email you inform you that the payment has been initiated.
2. Three reminder emails will be sent out every five days to remind you that a payment is overdue. The email will include the amount due, what it’s for and a link to complete the payment online.
3. If payment is not initiated after the three reminder emails have been sent out. A letter will sent out to the address we have for you in OSM, asking for payment to be made. This will include the amount due, what it’s for and request for the payment to be made online (using the online method mentioned in previous reminder emails).
4. If payment hasn’t yet been made or if the parent hasn’t communicated with us regarding payment within 5 days of the letter being delivered, then a member of the leader team will either phone or meet with you to discuss.
5. After this verbal or face-to-face meeting, until payment is made, the young person(s) won’t be able to attend events outwith the Scout Hall. If the young person still attends section meetings, then they won’t be allowed to participate in activities once there. The simple reason for this is that subscriptions cover our insurance for your child to be able to participate in activities within the group. We don’t want to be liable should a young person be injured and their subscriptions (i.e. insurance) has not yet been paid.

Where financially possible the Group operates a genuine hardship policy and will not exclude a young person through an inability to pay. Please contact your Section Leader confidentially and we will talk with you (in confidence) about ways we may be able to help you. We would never want to see anyone having to leave the Group because of issues relating to paying subscriptions.