Common questions about Consumers' Association's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is Consumers' Association a good charity? +
Consumers' Association scores 59 out of 100 (2 stars — Poor) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 25% of its spending goes to charitable activities (3-yr avg) and its accounts are up to date. That reflects how transparent and financially healthy it looks on paper — it does not measure the real-world impact of its work, so treat it as one factor alongside the cause you care about. CharityCompare never tells you where to donate.
Is Consumers' Association a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists Consumers' Association as a registered charity (charity number 296072). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=296072&subId=0. Check the current entry and the identity of anyone requesting money. Registration does not verify a particular appeal; Clarity Score summarises filing transparency, not programme impact.
What is Consumers' Association's charity number? +
Consumers' Association's charity number is 296072. Check that number on the official register (Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI) or this CharityCompare profile before you donate — scammers sometimes reuse real numbers on fake appeals.
What is Consumers' Association's charity rating? +
Consumers' Association scores 59 out of 100 on CharityCompare (2 stars — Poor). The Clarity Score (method v1.1) sums four pillars from UK regulator filings: Accountability & Transparency (40 pts), Financial Health (30), Financial Efficiency (20), and Community Support (10). Stars use the same bands as those labels — 90+ is 5★ Exceptional. It is not an impact ranking.
Does Consumers' Association have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for Consumers' Association. Instead you get a filing-based Clarity Score, cause spend, reserves and red flags such as late accounts (one red flag on this profile: high fundraising costs). For formal complaints about a charity, contact the Charity Commission, OSCR, CCNI or the Fundraising Regulator as appropriate.
How much of my donation reaches Consumers' Association? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 25% of Consumers' Association's total spending went to charitable activities (3-yr avg across disclosed years). That is the closest official figure to "how much of your donation reaches the cause" — it is an average across all spending in the filing, not a pound-by-pound breakdown of an individual gift.
What are Consumers' Association's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 75% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 76% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at Consumers' Association. Consumers' Association's annual return for the year ending 30 June 2025 reports 234 employees paid more than £60,000, including 56 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £450,001–£500,000 (1 employee). Individual salaries, including the chief executive's, are disclosed in the trustees' annual report rather than on the register.
How much income does Consumers' Association receive? +
Consumers' Association reported £84m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: stable.
Are Consumers' Association's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2026-03-11). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is Consumers' Association based? +
Consumers' Association's registered contact address is in London (NW1 4DF). It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, with a focus on education.
How much is Consumers' Association's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. Consumers' Association's annual return for the year ending 30 June 2025 reports 234 employees paid more than £60,000, including 56 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £450,001–£500,000 (1 employee). Charities normally disclose the chief executive's pay, or the pay of their highest-paid staff, in the remuneration note of the trustees' annual report and accounts.
Where does Consumers' Association's money come from? +
Consumers' Association reported £84m total income for the year ending 30 June 2025. The largest sources were trading and fundraising events £81m (97%), investments £1.2m (1%), other income £788k (1%).
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to Consumers' Association? +
The register does not record Consumers' Association as registered with HMRC for Gift Aid. Ask the charity before assuming a donation can be Gift Aided.
Are Consumers' Association's trustees paid? +
Consumers' Association's annual return for the year ending 30 June 2025 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
When was Consumers' Association registered as a charity? +
Consumers' Association was entered on the register on 2 February 1987. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 00580128).
How does CharityCompare score Consumers' Association? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in Consumers' Association's regulator filings: Accountability & Transparency (40 points — filing history, trustees, policies), Financial Health (30 — reserves, income trend, debt), Financial Efficiency (20 — cause spend and fundraising cost, on a graduated scale) and Community Support (10 — volunteer-to-staff ratio). An open statutory inquiry scores 0. The score measures reporting on paper, not programme impact. CharityCompare is free for donors, takes no commission on donations, and scores cannot be bought.
How often is this page updated? +
This profile was last updated on 6 September 2026 from the latest UK regulator data available to CharityCompare, and Consumers' Association's most recent accounts cover 2025. Scores and figures refresh whenever we re-ingest the register, so the page reflects our latest data pull rather than a one-off review.