What a Retirement Collection Raises, and How to Run One

In short: Retirement pots are the largest workplace collections there are, averaging £235.27 from 18.3 contributors against £138.65 across all occasions. Around £15 to £30 a person is the usual suggestion. Allow three weeks rather than the fortnight you would give an ordinary leaver, because retirements pull in other teams and people who have already left.

Retirement collections are the largest ones most offices ever run, and they are the ones people most often get slightly wrong.

Not the money. The money is usually fine. What goes wrong is that a leaving do for someone with thirty years behind them is a bigger occasion than a leaving do for someone who has been there eighteen months, so more people want to contribute, from more departments, some of whom have not worked with the person for a decade. The collection stops being a quick lap of one office and becomes a logistical thing.

Here is how to run it.

What people give

The best public UK figures come from Collection Pot, a workplace collecting platform, whose analysis of its own pots was reported in October 2022. Retirement produced the largest pots of any occasion at an average of £235.27, from an average of 18.3 contributors, against an all-occasion average pot of £138.65 and an average individual contribution of £12.89.

Two caveats worth applying before you quote that at anyone. It is now four years old. And it describes people who were already using an online collection platform, which is not the same as offices in general.

What the numbers do confirm is the shape. Retirement pots run larger than leaving pots, and the reason is contributor count rather than generosity: 18.3 people against 11.4 for a leaving collection. The person has usually been there longer, so more colleagues know them, and retirements draw in other teams and people who have already left.

So plan for more contributors than an ordinary leaving do, spread wider, and give it longer to run.

Timing, which is more seasonal than you would think

Retirements cluster, and knowing where helps you plan.

Teachers in England and Wales work to fixed resignation dates under the Burgundy Book, so teaching retirements land on 31 December, 30 April or 31 August. A teacher retiring at Christmas has to give notice by 31 October. In 2026 that is a Saturday, so the real deadline is Friday 30 October.

NHS and local government retirements cluster around the end of the financial year in March, for pension reasons.

Everywhere else it is spread through the year with no strong pattern. If you want a rule of thumb, start the collection three weeks out rather than the fortnight you would allow for a normal leaver, because you are trying to reach more people across more teams.

Running it without becoming the office bank

The mechanics cause more friction than the money, and most of it is avoidable.

Suggest a figure, do not set a target. People want to know what normal looks like so they can place themselves. A target turns it into a fundraiser and quietly makes anyone giving less responsible for a shortfall.

Keep contributions private. This matters more in an office than almost anywhere, because pay is uneven and visible contributions become a proxy for seniority. Nobody should be able to see who gave what. A retirement collection reaching three departments will include people on very different salaries, and some of them will be quietly stretched.

Set a close date before the last day. Two or three days before, so there is time to buy something and get the card round. A collection that closes on the morning of the do is a collection somebody is chasing during the speeches.

Ask once, remind once. The third message only ever reaches the people who could not afford it.

Do not run it through your own account

The default is that one person shares their bank details and becomes the treasurer for a fortnight, and it goes wrong in the same ways every time.

Several hundred pounds of other people’s money sits in a personal current account. Contributions arrive with references like “SARAH R” and “retirement” and nothing at all, and somebody has to match them up. Every question about the total goes to the same person. And when someone transfers twice by mistake, refunding them is a favour on top of a favour.

A shared collection link removes all of it. People open it, contribute in half a minute, and there is nothing to download or set up. Planiit’s retirement collections work this way: contributions are processed by Stripe and go to your own connected account, so Planiit never holds the money and adds no fee for the people contributing. Amounts stay private. When you close it, the total becomes a gift card the person chooses from.

That last part suits a retirement better than most occasions. After thirty years, the odds of a group of colleagues correctly guessing what somebody wants are not good, and letting them choose is usually the kinder answer.

For the ordinary leaving collection, which runs on smaller amounts and a shorter deadline, see how much do you actually put in a leaving collection.

One limit worth knowing. A collection pays out to one recipient. If two colleagues are retiring in the same month, that is two collections rather than one pot divided in half.

Is it taxable?

It comes up once a pot gets past a few hundred pounds, so it is worth answering plainly.

A collection funded by colleagues out of their own pockets is a gift between individuals rather than pay. HMRC’s guidance on gifts and voluntary payments treats a gift made on personal grounds, or as a mark of personal esteem, as not counting as earnings. That is the ordinary shape of a whip-round and it is why nobody in your office has ever had to do anything about one.

It gets more complicated when the employer puts money in, because a contribution from the company is a different question with its own rules. If your employer wants to add to the pot, that is one for payroll rather than for whoever is organising.

This is general information, not tax advice. If the amount is unusually large, or the employer is contributing, ask payroll or an accountant.

Common questions

Is a retirement collection from colleagues taxable?

A collection funded by colleagues out of their own pockets is generally treated as a gift between individuals rather than as pay. Where the employer contributes, the position is different and payroll should be asked. This is general information rather than tax advice.

How much should you give for a retirement collection?

Around £15 to £30 a person is the usual suggestion for a retirement, higher than the £5 to £10 typical of an ordinary leaving collection. Collection Pot’s platform data, reported in October 2022, put the average retirement pot at £235.27 from 18.3 contributors. There is no fixed rate, and keeping contributions private matters more than the figure.

How long should a retirement collection run?

About three weeks, which is longer than the fortnight you would allow for an ordinary leaving collection. Retirements draw in more people across more teams, including former colleagues, so it takes longer to reach everyone.

When do most UK retirements happen?

Teachers in England and Wales retire on 31 December, 30 April or 31 August under the Burgundy Book resignation dates. NHS and local government retirements cluster at the end of the financial year in March. Other sectors are spread through the year.

Can the company contribute to the collection?

It can, but it changes the position, because money from the employer is not a gift between colleagues. Ask payroll before the company adds anything, rather than working it out afterwards.

Should you run one collection for two people retiring together?

Run one each. A collection pays out to a single recipient, so two retirements means two collections, and each person then gets their own card and their own total.

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Set up a free retirement collection, share one link with the team, and turn the total into a gift card at planiit.io.