Common questions about Samaritans's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is Samaritans a good charity? +
Samaritans scores 90 out of 100 (5 stars — Exceptional) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 77% 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 Samaritans a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists Samaritans as a registered charity (charity number 219432). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=219432&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 Samaritans's charity number? +
Samaritans's charity number is 219432. 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 Samaritans's charity rating? +
Samaritans scores 90 out of 100 on CharityCompare (5 stars — Exceptional). 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 Samaritans have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for Samaritans. Instead you get a filing-based Clarity Score, cause spend, reserves and red flags such as late accounts (none flagged on this profile). For formal complaints about a charity, contact the Charity Commission, OSCR, CCNI or the Fundraising Regulator as appropriate.
How much of my donation reaches Samaritans? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 77% of Samaritans'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 Samaritans's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 23% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 25% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at Samaritans. Samaritans's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2026 reports 43 employees paid more than £60,000, including 5 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £120,001–£130,000 (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 Samaritans receive? +
Samaritans reported £28m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: stable.
Are Samaritans's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2025-11-03). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is Samaritans based? +
Samaritans's registered contact address is in London (KT17 2AF). It tells the regulator it operates in England and Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Guernsey, Isle of Man, with a focus on mental health.
How much is Samaritans's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. Samaritans's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2026 reports 43 employees paid more than £60,000, including 5 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £120,001–£130,000 (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 Samaritans's money come from? +
Samaritans reported £25m total income for the year ending 31 March 2026. The largest sources were donations and legacies £18m (73%), trading and fundraising events £3.9m (16%), charitable activities £2.4m (10%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £4.7m.
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to Samaritans? +
The register records Samaritans as registered with HMRC for Gift Aid, so a UK taxpayer can usually add 25p to every £1 they give by making a Gift Aid declaration.
Are Samaritans's trustees paid? +
Samaritans's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2026 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
What was Samaritans previously called? +
The register lists this previous name for Samaritans: The Samaritans.
When was Samaritans registered as a charity? +
Samaritans was entered on the register on 28 August 1963. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 00757372).
How does CharityCompare score Samaritans? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in Samaritans'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 Samaritans'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.