Costs of volunteering report released
Volunteering Australia has released a report showing that volunteers
save the country an estimated $42 billion a year in emergency, community and health services.
The 6.3 million people – or 41% of adult Australians – who
volunteered their time and efforts paid an average of $693 a year to do
so – in travel, telephone and training expenses as well as the time taken
in the volunteer work.
St John’s Ambulance members regularly paid up to $500 a week to cover food, travel and accommodation expenses when
attending big events.
The report found that 10% of volunteers had cut back on their
voluntary work in the past year due to high costs and 80%
believed that the expenses made it more difficult to encourage others
to volunteer. However, almost one in five felt volunteers should have
some responsibility for costs.
Volunteering Australia has called on the Federal Government to reimburse volunteers up to $300 a year for out of pocket expenses.
