Donate contactless with Tap London
To help make it easier for Londoners to support homeless initiatives, City Hall has installed ‘Tap London’ devices across the city where you can donate £3 by tapping your contactless payment card or contactless payment device.
You might see these ‘Tap London’ points dotted around the capital - see the map of locations- and can tap your card or contactless device as often as you like.
What do you think of this way of donating, and had you heard of this before? Is this a good or bad innovation to support rough sleepers? Would you use Tap London if you saw such a device? Why or why not?
Summary
Thanks everyone for joining in this discussion. We have shared your feedback with our colleagues in the Housing Team.
The Tap London donation points have raised over £64.000 so far. We'll keep you updated on the next steps.
Talk London
125 Comments
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Great idea as long as the money raised is used to help get people off the street, and not just help sustain their life on the street, keeping them there. Also care needs to be taken that the scheme does not attract more homeless to the area, making the problems worse. We need to be careful of unintended consequences and help reduce the scale of the problem, and help the homeless get off the street
Simonfiona has got it right. The idea is a good one, because it proposes a London-specific means of tackling a London-specific problem. But there need to be strict controls to ensure that the money raised goes only towards the purpose for which is is being raised - as ~Simonfonia says, no unintended consequences.
I hadn't heard of it before but think its a great way to donate and I definately will be. I think it great way to help people not to sleep on the street.
Let Mr Khan dig into his deep pocket and make a large donation to the homeless, he comes up with these idea’s how does he expect the public to help when there weekly funds are low, all he ever does is come up with idea’s to make people poorer.
i feel for the homeless but when more than the average person is on the breadline there selves what does he expect us to do.we are poorer and poorer with all these charges he keeps putting to us the next one is the ULEZ UNLESS YOU STOP TAXI’s working in London it won’t make any difference to pullution taxi drivers can earn a good wage if willing to work and yet they are exempt from paying this charge. A normal working driver is being punished yet again.
mr Khan help the homeless and help the poorer driver that is just trying to earn a living to survive.
How many times will you touch in to hel the homeless?????????
I think this is a great idea. Their presence should encourage donations which can only be a good thing. The government keeps telling us we're the fifth richest nation, so why do we still have people sleeping rough? I think it's a scandalous disgrace in a country as rich as ours. I would use such a device as long as I was sure that it was genuine. It would be a very handy way of supporting the homeless. My one concern is fraud. Just as fraudsters mimic ATMs, I'm sure they'll try and build fake machines. I would like to know what its security features are.
Hi Nick
Thanks for sharing your views. We shared your concerns with the team and they told us that the Tap London units are locked to the Tap bank account, meaning that donations can't be diverted. Unlike with cash, there's no chance of petty theft or fraud. Like a contactless payment each transaction is encrypted by third-parties on the spot, so Tap London are unable to see any of your card details or data.
We hope this helps.
Talk London
Talk London missed the point of the question. I can foresee enterprising scallywags installing fake devices.
It's a great way to donate but maybe if u were doing ur job it wouldn't be necessary
Great idea - the easier the better but they would need help getting off the streets too - not an easy thing!
It will make begging much less attractive to beggars, as they won't get the money (directly, anyway).
Great cause. Seems to offer respite more than cure. Don't like 'tapping' charity personally. Prefer it where charity can recover tax element too and I actually know how the money is spent. Prefer to set up to pay larger sums to chosen charities on an annual basis. But hey! If people want to tap, it's all money to a needy cause. It all spends well.
I fully agree with your views on this. I generally make regular gift-aided donations to charities which I try to understand something about. I don't personally like "tapping" - I don't trust its security and have had it taken off my cards where posssible - but for those who are happy with it I would applaud the generosity of the people who wish to contribute in this way.
I am a bit saddened by other comments however which seem to see looking after the homeless as a responsibility they have hygienically hived off to the council rather than involve themselves in it personally. Making a cash donation is the least that anyone can do to ease this ever-present social problem. The amount of that donation may have to be minimal due to other 'ends' that have to be met, but the value of that act of generosity is pure gold, to the donor and community.
Thanks for sharing your views.
All donations made to this campaign - via Tap London or Gofundme- are Gift Aid-able. With Tap London, Gift Aid is claimed by Tap’s charitable foundation using Swiftaid, with the full amount then donated to the London Homeless Charities Group (LHCG). More details at swiftaid.co.uk.
We hope this helps.
Talk London
It is a good idea as many people no longer carry cash. It shd ensure more goes for the intended purpose rather than on admin. ULEZ is a good idea too, the homeless are particularly vulnerable to poor air quality
Yes I would tap if I knew it was secure and not fraudulent.
This seems like a good alternative to giving the homeless cash when they beg in the street. I agree with the previous commentator who said that it's important that the money is spent on projects that help people off the streets and not just soup kitchens that help them survive.
I do fear that there could be unexpected repercussions, but it will be interesting to see how it works out. I expect the technology has cost quite a bit to invest in so it needs to be very successful to break even. it's a pity that the scheme does not permit gift aid to be added to these charitable donations, as it would be if people gave through normal websites. Perhaps a website could be set up to be advertised on these Tap London device.
The homeless problem seems to be getting more distressing by the day. Donating to individuals is always a dilemma so this scheme would seem to be one good solution. I approve of it and would certainly donate.
It's a great initiative as it makes donations so quick and convenient. Just make sure the public knows what is happening with the donations, keep it transparent!
Another great initiative would be to give Oyster cards to homeless persons so they can move around and get to organisations who could support them. How could we make that happen?
I agree with other commenters about the risk of fraud.
Also the importance of giving this money to charities that change their lives around and not just supporting their lives on the street. (Well put simonfiona)
also I have seen these devices before with charity collectors on the street (cancer research or someone) good tech but very easily replicated to be fraudulent.
Another idea would be to put something like this inside banks or shopping centres so there is cctv and you know it’s legit. Run this program with Tesco metro or someone and you’ll be on to a winner.
What about people who work hard and struggle to pay the rent? Can they have a free Oyster card too? It would be a good reward for doing the right thing and keeping themselves off the street.
I would like to see charity fundraisers banned from London's streets. They are incredibly rude and a total pain in the neck.
I think this is a great idea. However I would like it, if you could invest in the people, not the charities. For this to happen, further development of the idea would have to occur. I am not in to giving people on the streets cash as I have seen how some of the people have to give commission to people, so that they can retain their patch (amongst other things). It would be great if this technology could be used to build up a 'fund' for individuals so that they could use it at shelters, and for additional support services/food within them. It would mean that the charities do get the money, but it is via the people who really need their help. It would also have a psychological effect on the people on the street, making them realise that people care and encourage them off the streets to get the support. Would not work with everyone, but maybe a start.
An excellent idea, easy and secure.
A very good idea. Put them up where people beg. I'd have various amounts though, as I suspect that most people's "feel better about how nice they are" donation is about a pound. This will let people do somthing that is more helpful than buying a drink for the person inspiring the guilt, not that there's anything wrong with buying someone a drink, of course. It's impossible to know who really needs the money and who is a "professional" beggar, or just has mental health problems.
A lot of them are professional beggars. It's hard to know what drives them to it, but, in many cases, they are buying drink and drugs or sending money back to Romania.
A good idea - I had not heard of this before. Good to get more money in to help homeless, but I suspect it needs a sustained and rather expensive effort.
Any form of Brexit will decrease the amount of money available for this sort of thing of course.
Can't you see that being in the EU is fuelling demand for housing, pushing up house prices and leaving more people to sleep on the streets? Leaving the EU can only be a good thing.
Like the concept but I would need assurance that it was secure - not sure what would make me feel comfortable though
Can you claim the tax back from these donations.... at least at the basic rate?
No. Tax relief at basic rate on charitable donations goes only to the charity, following a donor gift-aid declaration and the charity making a claim on HMRC. Otherwise the Charities Aid Foundation reclaims tax on money banked with it by individuals for the purpose of them making donations from it, and the reclaimed tax is added to their individual charities pot. With gift-aid if you are a donor who pays higher-rate tax you can claim relief on your income tax of the difference between the basic rate which goes to the charity and your higher rate.
Gift aid regulation has been evolving however to allow charities to claim some measure of relief on accumulated small donations without the need to identify such individual donors as taxpayers - if HMRC wishes I am sure they could "tweak" the rules to allow charities to claim on money they receive from this new "Tap" scheme. That is something to which the Mayor might usefully apply himself.
Hi there
All donations made to this campaign - via Tap London or Gofundme- are Gift Aid-able. With Tap London, Gift Aid is claimed by Tap’s charitable foundation using Swiftaid, with the full amount then donated to the London Homeless Charities Group (LHCG). More details at swiftaid.co.uk.
We hope this helps.
Talk London
The homeless situation is more distressing by the day. If this is one of the solutions i would support and donate.
Excellent idea, I would definitely donate this way, as I usually don't carry cash on me these days. Sure, the root cause of homelessness will still remain, but we can't ignore the homeless needing help right now. We need a multi pronged approach. There is no excuse for homelessness in a nation as wealthy as ours.
I've seen one of these tap collectors built into the window storefront of a charity shop in Angel, and I donated to that with no qualms as I did not feel there would be a fraud risk. I would be more wary of charity muggers with machines about on the street though.
I agree that it's a good idea but wouldn't do it because of fraud and also who wants to get their card out in the street? In shops etc. would be safer and therefore work better.
Hi Suex
Thanks for sharing your views. The majority of the Tap London contactless donation points are countertop units located inside, in places such as cafes, where people can donate inside with no obligation to purchase items from the vendor. You can look for your nearest unit on this map.
Talk London
If I saw one of these devices, I would definitely give using a contactless card. Homelessness is a serious problem in London and we need to tackle it. More funds are needed for mental health teams, so that the police don't have to deal with alcolholics and mental health patients of all sorts.
An advertised mobile phone text number debiting the subscribers' account with £3 would be appropriate; just like the Children in Need donation method. As someone else has said " so long as the money raised goes towards permanent accommodation to negate the need for those affected to go back on the streets. The possibility of homeless people migrating to London to benefit from this initiative is also worthy of consideration."
Absolutely! Just wait for word to get back to Romania that you can get PERMANENT accommodation in London just by spending a few nights sleeping on the street!
In reply to Alison: Maybe money going to Romania helps to educate children, maybe not. Anyway, most of the ones that I see are British.
Introduce rent capping and tighten up tenants' rights so people won't be made homeless in the first place
Totally agree! The government has crowed endlessly about banning letting agents' fees, but I still have to pay £60 for the privilege of changing the date on my tenancy agreement. They tried to charge me £150 and I had to haggle with them to get it reduced to £60. How on earth are people supposed to afford these exorbitant fees? No wonder they end up sleeping on the street!
Also, people with unpredictable incomes or with some help from the benefit system get locked out of the rental market. Councils don't help either, unless you have a child. So there is no alternative to sleeping rough. The government ought to do something about this form of discrimination. They have no qualms about addressing all sorts of other equality issues.
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