It is fair to say that the issue of payments to charity trustees is an emotive one with strong arguments on both sides of the fence. 

The public face of the Charity Commission has always been firmly in the camp of such payments being the ‘exception, not the rule’. 

The Commission's latest redraft of their guidance on charity trustee payments cc11 Charities paying a trustee or a connected person: understand the rules (CC11) - GOV.UK emphasises that and the need for charities to not only be clear as to the powers they have to make such payments, but also why they are in a charity's best interest. 

For an overview of the redrafted guidance, see my latest ebriefing - Caution required: Understanding the Charity Commission's updated guidance on trustee payments