The following payment policy applies to all paid-for events (including, but not limited to, camps, excursions, day trips and evening activities) run by 1st Purley and Pangbourne. The payment policy will be waived in exceptional circumstances only, and will require approval of the Trustees of the Scout Group.
Deposits
All deposits are non-refundable. If a young person has been booked on to an event and then does not attend, or cancels at short-notice, the deposit will still be due. This is to cover any expenses that may have been incurred. See ‘Cancellation by you’ below.
Cancellation by you
Changes to attendance – particularly at short notice – often means changing carefully-laid plans, which in turn costs our volunteers valuable time. Therefore, the following policies will apply:
- Cancellation 90 days before an event, refund of any money paid less any deposit charged.
- Cancellation between 90 days and 30 days before an event, 50% refund of any money paid or due, less any deposit charged.
- Cancellation fewer than 30 days before an event, 0% refund, full costs of the event due.
Payment Plans
If you are paying for an event via a payment plan, put in place by the leaders to spread the cost, any refund will be calculated on the monies due or paid at the time of cancellation.
For example:
Camp takes place 27th to 30th April at a cost of £250
Deposit due 1st December (£50) (non-refundable)
Instalment 1 (£100) paid 1st January: cancellation occurs before 27th January (90 days before event) = £100 refund.
Instalment 2 (£100) due 1st February: cancellation occurs between 28th January and 27th March (between 90 days and 30 days) before event, £100 refund (50% of instalment 1 and 2).
Cancellation after 27th March: no refund due (except in exceptional circumstances)
Cancellation by 1st P&P
Where 1st Purley and Pangbourne has to cancel an event every effort will be made to return all monies paid.
Cancellation by a 3rd party providing services to 1st P&P
1st Purley and Pangbourne will make all efforts to retrieve all monies paid and return unspent money to parents, refunds will be limited to those funds able to be recovered from either the 3rd party.
Where 1st Purley and Pangbourne are using 3rd party providers to offer part of an activity, such as a major camp, not all fees paid will be subject to refund due to the cancellation by a 3rd party. Where 1st Purley and Pangbourne opt to change an activity offered to continue to provide an overall event or activity, no refund will be offered.
Where 1st Purley and Pangbourne have put in place additional services such as insurance, or where we have paid non-refundable deposits we may be unable to return all monies paid.
Refund Method
Any money to be refunded will be paid via BACS. 1st Purley and Pangbourne will require you to complete an expenses payment form to provide your banking details..
Subscriptions
Subscriptions (subs) are charged termly. As these are requested around halfway through each term, if you no longer require a place please notify us within 4 weeks of the start of said term, otherwise fees will be due for the whole term.
Hardship
Money should never be a blocker to attending any 1st Purley and Pangbourne event. If you have issues or challenges in paying for an event please do speak to us. We can access a number of grant facilities, and we are happy to discuss and agree spreading the cost over a longer period of time if this would help. Please reach out to your section volunteer team in the first instance, or the group lead volunteers.
Non Payment
Non-payment of subs or event fees may result in your young person being asked to leave 1st Purley and Pangbourne Scout group. However, this would only ever be a last resort, and never where we are aware of issues in making payments.
Money facts
- 1st Purley and Pangbourne is run totally by volunteers; no one is paid by the Group to run any of the sections, events or activities.
- All payments paid by parents via OSM cost 1st Purley and Pangbourne 2.9% before we receive your money. This system makes the lives of our leaders significantly easier by reducing admin time and is therefore why we use it. We believe the benefit of using OSM outweighs the cost, increasing the value our volunteers can provide to your young people