Oh, morning, guys.

I'm on my way in.

What a miserable day.

I've got a jumper on, a vest on, two pairs of socks.

Maybe I'll warm up and brighten up.

I don't know.

This is why we need a furniture shop now, because we're getting so much furniture and we can't put it outside on days like this.

You know, we really, really need a shop for furniture.

There's a lot of shops coming up, there's a lot of warehouses coming up, a lot of warehouses, a lot of units coming up.

If we've got a big space for the cheap rent and you want it full, I'm your girl.

If we've got a big unit, big shop or whatever and you want stupid prices, bring somebody else.

Where would I like to be this time next year?

Second, Donation Centre, running effectively, along with the first.

Plenty of volunteers and a furniture shop, which we can set up and style.

We can still have some rails there and some baby clothes, that's not a problem, but it needs to be set up like Ikea.

And we could do with one or two, maybe three hubs.

That's what I'd like to be next year.

We need to talk allowances because we're not paying the allowances if you're not doing the full shift and you're not working that shift.

So if you come in and you sit around and you're drinking pop all day and you're not actually doing any work or you're spending hours in the toilet or you're on your phone, you won't get paid yet.

It is a gesture of goodwill.

I've got some information to put up after because if you declare it...

I would recommend that you tell the Job Centre and everybody else about it anyway.

What the Job Centre has agreed is that because the Sherlock and his team is trying to fee a bundle of people now saying you cannot earn this £20 store credit, you can, it's a gesture of goodwill.

It's like me buying you a gift.

If I want to buy you a gift, I can.

What they can do is they can put it into your diaries and your paperwork that you've volunteered for us.

And that's what they've started doing.

So I'll show you that in a bit.

So thank you to the DWP, to the Job Centres and to everybody else that are fully aware.

I can be flexible because I think I go nine till five and then five till something overnight.

Right, now I can be flexible if you're a mother with children under 18 because by law you have to be flexible with mothers, with children with learning difficulties, special needs, special medical conditions and children under five anyway.

So I can be flexible for people with children that have mothers under 18.

So as long as this is within school hours, so we're looking at half past nine till like three, half past two.

I can do the allowance for that amount of hours as well as long as you're working.

But what I'm not doing is paying £20 allowance for somebody who comes in and does two hours work.

We're not doing it.

If you come in for the full day, because these are the shift patterns that I need.

It's lovely if you can pop in and give us an hour.

Brilliant, right?

But really, I don't need you for the hour.

I need you for the day.

That's what the allowance is for.

So you won't get any allowance now if you just pop it in once at a blue moon or now and again.

Or you come in and you do three hours and then we don't see you for three weeks.

We're not going to be doing that again.

You have to do the full shift patterns right to take the allowance.

It's no good coming in to me at a past ten in the morning, going at two o'clock and then saying, well, I have £20 allowance.

It's no good to me.

That shift is no good to me.

I need you in by nine till five.

That's what I need.

They are working hours.

They are working volunteer hours.

And that's what you get your £20 allowance.

Which is generous and it isn't taxable if you're not taking high value items.

If you are selling items on vintage or car boot sales, then yes, you will be and you will have to declare that.

But if you're picking up clothes for yourself and the children and toys and books, well, we let our volunteers borrow books and games and the other stuff anyway.

Because you only use them for a bit and bring them back and you're checking them as you're doing it.

So if you wanted to borrow jigsaws and bring them back and say, oh, this one's missing a bit but these other two are complete, then write it on the box and sellotape it up and bring it back in.

We let our volunteers do that.

But I'm going to have to put my foot down with the allowance because we've had a few people taking advantage with the allowance now.

It's very generous.

Nobody else will give you that amount.

Nobody.

Okay?

But we're in a position to do it.

And I'm also very grateful for the mums that come in and help us.

But unless you're doing the nine till five, the appas nine till three, or I think it's the five till whatever, or the weekend, you're not going to be entitled to allowance.

You will have to pay for the stock with 75% discount.

Okay?

But I've also noticed that we've got a couple of volunteers that come in shopping and then they're like, oh, I'm having my 75% discount.

Okay?

So if you're not coming into work on a regular basis, you're not going to be entitled to a 75% discount either.

Okay?

Because it's no good just turning up when you want something.

That's no good to me either.

So I'm going to revoke it for just, you know, if you haven't been in for three weeks, you turn up, you fanny around a couple of things on an anger.

And then, you know, you want 75% discount.

You're not going to have it.

Okay?

Because that is no use to me.

And now as we're getting bigger and bigger, I need to solidify more volunteers with more permanent shifts rather than flexi vol 24-7.

Flexi vol we can do for people with mental health issues and some of our mums and things like that.

But, I mean, some of our mothers come in and they do two hours and they work their backsides off and that's the only hours they got.

But they walk out without wanting to buy anything, without the discount on.

So I think from now on, unless you are a permanent worker and you need to be working every week consecutively at least one shift, then you're not going to be classed as a volunteer.

Well, you are, but you're a flexi vol and you wouldn't be entitled to the discount as well.

You're only going to be entitled to what the customers get.

Because it's no use to me.

It's pointless you coming in just to tidy up a few things on an anger, if I'm honest.

I appreciate it and lots of people do it, but what I would suggest is for me going forward, and I'm quite sure that anybody that was giving me advice would say don't pay them £20 a day in stock or give them 75% off because if they're not there working and they're not doing a full shift,

then what is the point of them being in?

And I'm quite sure that that's quite a rational statement to make.

