A frugal life is an easy life!

Charity backed leaflets and/or collection bags are being posted in letterboxes all over England.
Most of the companies and/or charities doing the collections, do not have a license to do so, which makes even posting bags/leaflets a criminal offence.

It is also theft, as they are stealing from legitimate charities who have applied for and do have a license.

The collection companies are making huge profits for their businesses from these collections, giving a token payment to the charity named on bags/leaflets, whilst creaming off the vast majority of money made from the sell on of clothing/footwear donations made by the people whose homes they visit.
First the public were told that, "We give £50 per collection to [insert charity name here]" - then once the public rumbled that the average price per tonne of clothing sold in eastern european countries (which is where most of the clothing collections end up) is anything up to £600 per tonne, the collection companies and charities they say they are working for changed leaflets to "We give £2000 per month to [insert charity name here]"

Today the situation is getting worse.
There are sporadic reports of people putting clothing collection bags out for genuine, large charities and are having them STOLEN (because it is theft) by collection companies doing unlicensed collections.
There are also reports of the large collection bins in schools, supermarkets, council car parks, etc, being "raided" by these collection companies.
Many "Charities" and their collection companies are not even bothering to apply for licenses to make doorstep collections. Those that are granted licenses, often carry out doorstep collections after their license has run out!

So who is going to put a stop to this illegal practice?

The charities themselves?
Not going to happen - they are desperate for funding so sign up to agreements with collection companies. Many charities actually duplicate services and other charities work at the same time as paying themselves well in wages no doubt.
Little treasures children's trust were told by myself about an unlicensed collection in my area, they could understand the reason for my complaint and were "having a meeting with ELT the collection company that morning and would tell them to stop"
The collection company rang my council licensing office later the same day admitting they did not have a license to collect - saying they wouldn't be collecting.
The next day, a van pulled up on my street looking for collection bags.
I contacted Little treasures children's trust and quoted the van registration, they confirmed it was in fact one of their own vans doing the unlicensed collection!
Despite knowing about the collection 24 hours in advance, they still went ahead with an unlicensed collection. This is illegal.

The police?
They are not interested.
In the case I've just mentioned, they sent around a neighbourhood and a PCSO officer to discuss my enquiry.
Despite the collection being against the law (House-to-House Collections Regulations 1947 (as amended). House-to-House Collections Act 1939) whereby any company or individual who advertises [via leaflet or bag] or operates a collection, from house to house, without a license whilst in a licensing area, is deemed to be in breach of said law, the police would only say that "it is a civil matter, contact the local council"

Local councils?
Waste of space!
Chief licensing officer's own words, "What they are doing is illegal" - I rang his office on the day of the collection to inform him that their van had just attempted a collection in our street. The police informed me immediately afterwards that they had stopped the van on a neighbouring estate.
Not five minutes later, the chief licensing officer knocked on my door asking for details of the van, which I gave. The licensing officer went off "to catch them in the act" in the opposite direction to that where the police had just stopped the van!
Some decent councils are scrutinising the profits being made and refusing licenses on that basis, most local councils are not even asking questions of collection companies as regards profits made.
Even when a license is not applied for and collections go ahead, councils are still failing to act, saying "it's a finance issue with the council!"
Have they never heard of the police?

Charity commission?
"Unless we receive around 3000 complaints in writing about the same company/charity we do not normally investigate!"
The commission have this year, a budget of £29 MILLION - I can prove an illegal unlicensed collection is taking place in less than five minutes, with the backing of the local council licensing office, the police and the charity itself!
What else is so important that the commission need to "investigate?"
When I put a complaint in wiriting to the commission, they took weeks to even reply, even then the best they could do was to say, "if you feel this might not be a genuine charity then you should consider not giving to their collections"
Useless!

A local councillor?
Even though, the councillor I spoke with, receives lots of these collection bags through his own letterbox, I was simply advised to, "raise awareness of the issue!"
Here's a crazy idea, why don't you do your job and sort it out?

Trading standards office?
Not even worth including them in this post.
Our "local" trading standards office is based in Preston. They were notified via consumer direct and didn't even respond with a phone call or notice in writing, let alone, god forbid, they actually turned up in the area on the day of the unlicensed collection and actually caught them in the act!

So who or what body is going to put a stop to the constant streams of unlicensed charitable doorstep clothing collections?
Maybe it's time for me to get active and rustle a few feathers!