How Much to Give for a Leaving Gift in the UK

How much to give for a leaving gift in the UK

How much to give for a leaving gift in the UK usually lands between £5 and £20 per person, with £10 the most common single contribution for someone on your own team. If you barely worked with the person, £5 is perfectly acceptable. If they were a daily colleague or a close work friend, £20 to £30 is generous without being awkward.

There is no fixed rule, and that is exactly why the envelope going round the office causes so much quiet panic. Give too little and you worry it looks mean; give too much and you have set an uncomfortable benchmark for everyone after you.

Last updated: September 2026.

This guide gives you a per-person amount table, the factors that legitimately move your number up or down, and the etiquette that stops a leaving collection turning into a popularity contest. If you are the one running the collection rather than contributing to it, our guide on how to collect money for a leaving gift in the UK covers the organising side.

Key takeaways

• Typical UK leaving gift contribution: £5–£20 per person, with £10 the common middle for a team-mate.
• £5 is not stingy. For a colleague in another department or someone you rarely worked with, it is the normal amount.
• The organiser's suggested figure beats every rule of thumb. If a number has been named, match it and stop deliberating.
• Managers usually give more — often £20–£50 — because they are giving on behalf of a working relationship, not just a desk neighbour.
• What you write matters as much as what you give. Across PocketWell's platform, 77% of the gifts sent carry a written message from the giver.

On this page

• The short answer: typical leaving gift amounts
• Leaving gift amount per person: the quick guide
• What changes how much you should contribute
• How much to contribute to a leaving collection with no suggested amount
• Colleague leaving gift money in the UK: the etiquette that matters
• How online collections change the amounts
• Frequently asked questions
• Final tips before you chip in

The short answer: typical leaving gift amounts {#short-answer}

Most people in a UK workplace give £5 to £20 towards a leaving gift, and £10 is the figure that comes up most often. That range covers the overwhelming majority of office whip-rounds, from a small team buying a card and a bottle to a whole floor pooling for something substantial.

A "whip-round" — the informal collection passed between colleagues, historically in an envelope — is still the default in most British workplaces. The modern version is a link in a team chat, but the social maths has not changed: everyone is trying to guess what everyone else is putting in.

Two things decide your number. The first is how closely you actually worked with the person, which is the only factor anyone will genuinely notice. The second is your own budget, which nobody has the right to inspect. Salaries in the same office vary widely — the Office for National Statistics publishes the earnings data that shows just how much — so a fixed "everyone gives £15" expectation quietly penalises whoever earns least.

Not sure how the total splits across your team? Our free group gift calculator works out the per-person amount from your target and headcount.

Leaving gift amount per person: the quick guide {#amount-guide}

Use this table as a starting point, then adjust for your budget and how long the person has been there. The right leaving gift amount per person is the one that reflects your working relationship, not the one that outbids your colleagues.

Methodology note: these ranges are illustrative etiquette guidance reflecting common UK workplace practice, not survey findings. No published national dataset tracks office collection amounts, so treat the table as a sensible default rather than a measured average — and always defer to a suggested amount if your organiser has named one. Retirement collections tend to run higher because the milestone is bigger; we cover those separately in how much to give for a retirement gift in the UK.

What changes how much you should contribute {#what-changes}

Four factors legitimately move your contribution up or down: closeness, tenure, team size and your own finances. Everything else — job title, who else is watching, what you gave last time — is noise.

Closeness of the working relationship. This is the honest one. Someone you spoke to every day for three years warrants more than someone whose name you learned from the all-staff email. Nobody expects otherwise.

How long they have been there. A leaver with a decade of service is being thanked for the decade, not just the goodbye. Adding £5 or £10 to your usual amount is a normal way to mark that.

The size of the team. In a team of five, each contribution is a fifth of the gift, so a £10 note may not stretch to anything meaningful. In a department of sixty, £5 each already buys something generous. Small teams need bigger individual amounts — which is why organisers of small collections often name a higher figure.

Your own circumstances. If money is tight, give what you can and write something warm in the card. A £3 contribution with a specific, personal note lands better than £20 given resentfully. Anyone who counts individual contributions has misunderstood the exercise.

One factor that should not move your number: whether the gift is being organised by your employer. If the company is funding a leaving present rather than colleagues chipping in personally, the tax treatment is different — GOV.UK's guidance on expenses and benefits covers gifts provided by an employer, whereas a whip-round between colleagues is simply a personal gift between individuals. If your organisation is paying, that is a question for whoever holds the budget, not for you.

How much to contribute to a leaving collection with no suggested amount {#no-suggested-amount}

When nobody has named a figure, work backwards from the gift. Ask the organiser what they are hoping to buy and roughly how many people are contributing, then divide. If the answer is "a £150 voucher, about fifteen of us", £10 is your answer and you can stop agonising.

If you cannot get that information, default to £10 for a team-mate and £5 for someone outside your immediate team. Those two numbers will be right, or close enough to right, in almost every British workplace.

It is also entirely reasonable to ask the organiser directly and privately: "What are most people putting in?" Organisers are usually relieved to be asked, because the guesswork slows the whole collection down. Our advice on how to split the cost of a group gift in the UK walks through the splitting maths from the organiser's side.

This is where the suggested-amount habit earns its keep. Setting a figure up front is the single most useful thing an organiser can do — and on PocketWell, 83% of event pages have preset contribution amounts chosen by the host before the link goes out. Contribution gifting works far better with an anchor than without one, because most people are not trying to be generous or stingy; they are trying not to be wrong.

Colleague leaving gift money in the UK: the etiquette that matters {#etiquette}

The core rule of colleague leaving gift money in the UK is that contributions are private and participation is voluntary. Break either and the collection stops being a kind gesture.

Keep amounts anonymous. A list of names with figures beside them turns a thank-you into a league table. If you are organising, record who has contributed, not how much.

Never chase people twice. One clear message with the amount, the deadline and the link is enough. A second nudge to the whole group is fine; individually chasing the person who has not paid is not. They may have a reason they would rather not explain.

Do not exclude part-timers, people on leave or new starters. Extend the invitation to everyone who worked with the leaver and let them opt out quietly. Colleagues on maternity or parental leave are often forgotten entirely — the same courtesy applies there as it does when the collection is for them.

Match the gift to the goodbye. A cash gift or voucher is now completely standard for a leaving do, and often more useful than a guessed-at present. If the person is moving cities, retiring or heading somewhere with a specific plan, money towards that plan reads as thoughtful rather than lazy.

Write something. The card is the part people keep. Across PocketWell's workplace-style collections — group gifts, retirements, teacher and coach collections and maternity leave funds — 71% of the gifts sent came with a written message attached, and those messages are what the leaver actually re-reads. If the words are the hard part, our collection message generator gives you a starting line to make your own.

Acas, the UK workplace advisory service, publishes practical guidance on leaving a job well for anyone handling a departure formally — worth a look if the exit is a sensitive one and the collection needs handling with care.

How online collections change the amounts {#online-collections}

Online collections tend to produce cleaner, slightly higher contributions than an envelope, because nobody is limited to the cash in their wallet. The classic problem with a physical whip-round is that people give whatever note they happen to have, then the organiser is left carrying £47 in coins and covering the shortfall themselves.

A shared link removes that. Everyone contributes the amount they intended, from any device, and the organiser can see the running total instead of guessing whether the pot will reach the voucher price. Across PocketWell, the median funded collection draws five contributors and just over half draw five or more, which is exactly the shape of a normal team whip-round.

PocketWell is a digital collection platform — hosts create a free page for the occasion and colleagues send money gifts online, with no app needed to give. We see this from the platform side, so treat that as our vantage point rather than a neutral survey: group gifting collections in the United Kingdom are one of the steadier use cases alongside weddings.

On cost, so you can compare fairly against the alternatives: PocketWell is free for hosts, and guests pay a 3.9% platform fee plus payment processing on top of their gift. Funds reach the organiser through Stripe Connect payouts — Stripe handles the payments and the payout timing, so money lands on a banking timetable rather than instantly. If you are weighing up the options, we compare the main choices in our round-up of money collection apps in the UK.

For distributed teams the difference is larger still. When half the department is remote, an envelope simply does not work and a link is the only practical route, so the suggested amount has to do even more of the work.

Frequently asked questions {#faqs}

Q: How much should I give for a colleague's leaving gift in the UK?

A: £10 is the safe default for someone on your own team, and £5 is entirely acceptable for a colleague you rarely worked with. Push to £20 or more only if you worked together closely, they are a genuine work friend, or they have been at the company a long time. If the organiser has suggested an amount, that figure overrides all of this — matching it is both easier and more socially accurate than trying to calculate your own. The number nobody will remember is the amount you gave; the thing they will remember is whether you signed the card.

Q: Is £5 enough for a leaving collection?

A: Yes, £5 is enough in most UK workplaces, particularly for someone outside your immediate team or in a large department where dozens of people are contributing. Fifty people giving £5 produces a £250 gift, which is a good send-off by any measure. The only situation where £5 may fall short is a very small team trying to reach a specific target — if there are only four or five of you, ask the organiser what the pot needs to hit and give accordingly. Nobody is auditing individual amounts, and a reputable organiser keeps them private anyway.

Q: What if I genuinely cannot afford to contribute?

A: Opt out quietly and without explanation — you owe nobody a reason. Contributing to a leaving collection is voluntary, and a well-run collection makes that clear in the invitation. If you would still like to mark the occasion, sign the card with something specific and personal; that costs nothing and is frequently the part the leaver values most. If you are the organiser, phrase your message so opting out is easy: "no pressure at all if now isn't a good time" removes the awkwardness for everyone reading it.

Q: Should managers give more than everyone else?

A: Yes, usually — a line manager typically gives £20 to £50, roughly double a team member's contribution. That reflects the working relationship rather than the salary: managers are often the ones presenting the gift and saying a few words, so a larger contribution fits the role. It should not, however, be announced. If a manager's amount becomes public, it silently resets everyone else's benchmark and makes junior colleagues feel their £10 looks thin. Give more, say less.

Q: Do I still contribute if I am leaving soon myself?

A: Yes, though a smaller amount is completely normal — £5 to £10 covers it. Contributing keeps things warm on the way out, and you will likely be on the receiving end of a collection yourself shortly. If your own leaving date is within a week or two of theirs, some teams simply run a joint collection or a shared card, which spares everyone the double whip-round. That is worth suggesting to whoever is organising.

Q: Is it rude to ask how much other people are giving?

A: Asking the organiser privately is fine and sensible; asking your colleagues individually is not. The organiser knows the target and the headcount, so they can tell you the typical amount without disclosing anyone's contribution. Asking around the team, by contrast, puts colleagues on the spot about their finances and often produces inflated answers. One quiet message to the person running the collection gets you a better answer in less time.

Q: Should the leaving gift be cash, a voucher or a present?

A: Cash or a voucher is the more useful choice in most cases, and it is now completely standard for UK leaving dos. A guessed-at present risks duplicating something the person already owns, whereas money towards a specific plan — a move, a course, a trip, a new home — reads as genuinely considered. A hybrid works well too: a card everyone signs, a small physical token, and the bulk of the collection as a voucher or cash gift. If you are stuck on wording for the card, borrow a specific memory rather than a generic good-luck line — it takes the same thirty seconds and reads far better.

Q: Do people on leave or part-time hours get asked to contribute?

A: They should be invited, and they should find it easy to decline. Leaving someone off the list because they work three days a week or are on parental leave is a slight they will notice, particularly if they worked closely with the leaver. Send everyone the same message with the same opt-out wording, then let people decide for themselves. A shared link helps here too, because people can contribute on their own time rather than waiting for an envelope to reach a desk they are not sitting at.

Final tips before you chip in {#final-tips}

Knowing how much to give for a leaving gift comes down to three quick checks. Has an amount been suggested? Match it. How closely did you work with them? Adjust from £10 up or down accordingly. Can you comfortably afford it? If not, give less and write more — that trade is always worth making.

A last word for organisers: name a figure before you share the link. It is the difference between a collection that fills up in two days and one that dribbles in over a fortnight while everyone waits to see what the others do. Set the amount, say who it is for and when it closes, and the rest takes care of itself.

Organising the next one? See how a PocketWell collection page works — free for hosts, with colleagues contributing from any device and no app needed to give.