Gift Aid - Money for what?

Submitted by Ilya Gedye (United Kingdom), Apr 30, 2006 at 22:35

Dear Daniel,

I wrote about this a moment ago but forgot to mention my fears that perhaps the use of Gift Aid is not all it seems, in such cases. Its speculation, i know, but with so many foreign nationals on the make these days grabbing state handouts fraudulently, wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that this could be yet another way? If the people responsible for vetting these 'charities' aren't too concerned about their real motives, how can we be sure that they know the real use of funds of those organisations? People could donate large sums to the charity, and then be repaid, less the 28% of course. Could they be used to fund more sinister activities? Questions, questions.....

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".