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Payment of the membership subscription

5e.8.1.1 UK Headquarters membership subscription
To meet the costs of UK Headquarters’ services to the movement and the costs of organising and administering The Scout Association, and to meet The Scout Association's obligations to World Scouting, the Board of Trustees of The Scout Association requires a UK Headquarters’ Membership Subscription to be paid for each member aged under 18 at the time of the annual membership census. 

The amount of the membership subscription is decided annually by The Scout Association’s Board of Trustees. It applies to the whole of the United Kingdom, and to all members of The Scout Association who live outside the United Kingdom.  

The Board of Trustees also decides what proportion, if any, of the membership subscription is to be retained by the Country Scout Councils of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales towards the costs of their own Country Headquarters services. 

5e.8.1.2 Local membership subscriptions
In addition, to meet local costs, the local Group, District and County may also charge a membership subscription.  

In the case of Explorer Units partnered with a Group and operating using Operating Model 3 then the Group will charge the membership subscription to each Explorer, and will pay the District membership subscription for each Explorer. The District Trustee Board must be aware of the membership subscriptions charged by the Group for Explorers. 

5e.8.1.3 Collection and payment of membership subscriptions 

  1. Every Group, District and County is responsible for the collection and payment of the UK Headquarters’ membership subscriptions together with any Country, County and District subscriptions in accordance with the numbers returned on the annual census return.  
  2. Payments should be remitted to the District, County or Country Headquarters or UK Headquarters in line with the relevant Treasurer’s instructions and not later than the date annually notified locally.  
  3. Membership subscriptions may be collected from youth members or their parents by a method decided by the relevant Trustee Board.   

5e.8.1.4 Gift Aid or similar schemes
Each United Kingdom Group and District is very strongly encouraged to use the HMRC Gift Aid scheme for membership subscription payments made in respect of youth or other members by UK taxpayers.   

In this connection it must be noted that those units operating in Scotland which are not registered with OSCR are NOT charities in Scottish law and cannot recover Gift Aid. For this reason, Scottish units are encouraged to carefully consider the advantages of registering as a charity.  

Outside England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, some governments operate their own scheme similar to gift aid. Where such a scheme exists, its use is very strongly encouraged.