The Ethical Advisory Committee has approved the following guidance for investigators regarding making payments to participants.
1. Should payments be given to research participants?
The University’s Code of Practice on Investigations Involving Human Participants states that there should be neither financial inducement nor any other coercion, actual or implied, that might persuade people to take part in an investigation against their better judgement. Any payment made to volunteers should be for expenses, time, inconvenience or discomfort and never for hazard to the person. All payments to participants must be approved by the Ethical Advisory Committee.
If a payment is to be made to participants this should not be included on any advertisements or recruitment correspondence.
2. Payments to participants and tax
The consequences for the university are as follows:
HMRC have confirmed in writing that the amounts paid to volunteers are unlikely to fall within the definition of “earnings” for PAYE or NI purposes. No employment relationship exists and as such there is no requirement for the University to deduct PAYE and NIC from the payments.
Under UK Tax Law, HMRC is entitled to ask for details of payments to non-employees at their discretion. HMRC are aware that, and fully accept that the University would be unable to provide details of the recipients given the confidentiality commitments made to volunteers, and have confirmed that they would not routinely ask for details for small payments such as these.
The consequences for the individual are as follows:
HMRC have also confirmed that there will be no tax or NIC liability arising on the individual if the sums received do no more than reimburse the individuals for reasonable costs incurred in participating in the trial or research; this includes costs of travel and subsistence. However, should sums exceed those reasonable expenses (unlikely in practice) then the excess may fall to be chargeable to “Miscellaneous Income” i.e. the individual may have to pay income tax on this amount and notify HMRC under Self Assessment.
Where in doubt, investigators should seek additional guidance from the Finance Office, especially in cases where the amounts payable are significant or the participants are also University staff. Please contact Alastair McClelland (A.G.McClelland@lboro.ac.uk) or Harriet Latham (h.latham@lboro.ac.uk) for more information.
3. Method of payment
The EAC recommends that all payments are made in the form of vouchers rather than cash or cheques. The tax implications are the same regardless of whether the payment is in the form of vouchers, cash or cheques.
4. Prize Draw Incentives
Any research which includes incentives (other than basic expenses) must seek individual clearance from the EAC either by submitting the Ethical Clearance Checklist with additional information about the incentive, or by completing a full proposal. This does include any research which is offering a prize, even if it is only to one of the participants chosen at random at the end of the study, for example awarding a £20 book voucher for completing an on-line questionnaire. Checklists can be sent by email to the Secretary (Z.C.Stockdale@lboro.ac.uk) for consideration by Chair’s Action.
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