Working from home expenses

[Mrsmchammer]

I've had to work from home, like many thousands of others. My covid role is classed as essential so it not only carried on through the pandemic it became basically 7 days a week, 10 or so hours a day at some points.
My wages were not affected, and I have not been offered extra money towards electricity bills or for my phone which is integral to the service I provide.

Has anyone WFH been awarded a stipend for their extra expenses by moving their office into their living room?? We have to work from home for at least 3 more months.
I'm just curious to see how organisations reimbursed their staff, if at all.

We've been given £10/month automatically. Also been told to do a risk assessment on home working environment, so presumably some people will have got new furntiture etc.

Considering I've been saving money on travel and lunches and already have unlimited internet, the extra was unexpected (I don't work for a large profit-making company) and gesture appreciated.

To be clear the weekly / monthly allowance is a legal entitlement, your company can't say no. But I would echo what others have said whereby if your company is financially on its knees I would think twice and maybe claim the lower value tax amount back from hmrc instead

Now is not the time to assume every employer is looking to rip its employees off , many are sadly, but more are just trying to keep the business afloat for everyone

Not every employer is a company...

I imagine that commercial property sector has collapsed. So it's not like they can just sell off unused office space.

Rented office space: commercial leases tend to be quite long period, so maybe not get out of quickly.

Since property maintenance or rent/rates are the largest by far expenses for most employers, employer savings from enforced WFH in near future seem likely to be marginal in short run. And nobody knows how well WFH as business model will work for most employers longer term, so whether it's sensible to rely on that strategy. It's terrible for many new starters or apprenticeships.

I have worked from home for the last 8 years. My employer reinburses a few odd expenses, printer ink, paper etc and paid for my laptop. He also bought me an internet phone. I pay for electricity/heating. If I have to travel for work I claim milage at 40p per mile and reasonable subsistance costs.

We've been offered nothing. It does annoy me a bit as they'd normally be paying for the coffee machine, working lunches, cleaning, paper, printing, electricity, etc. So they're saving quite a bit, most of which we're incurring privately.

DSD's BF however has been sent fruit hampers and cash bonuses - though he works for a company that does remote access software so they are booming!

Not every employer is a company...

Did I say otherwise? I just said lots of companies will have found they made savings.

Plenty of companies have found increased productivity over this time.
That's not insignificant when you are talking about annual turnovers of 1bn. Lots of businesses that have traditionally being reluctant to remote working will now start embracing it in some form because productivity has not been affected.

Business travel - I read that Europe is expected to take a $190bn hit this yr. It's not necessary to fly every week for meetings like my db did last yr for 3 months.

Many big banks, law firms heavily subsidise food & alcohol on site whether that's a reduced meal from a restaurant (DHs has five food outlets to chose from) or lunch & drinks on a Friday afternoon or even dinner delivered to your desk when working late. My friends firm are now paying them a weekly allowance to use on a family take away.

These companies employ thousands, having no one in the office makes a difference. Yes leases won't be changed now but likely will in the future.

WFH for me was a breeze. Less hours and work etc.

So asking for expenses in my circumstance would be cheeky

(Education, HE) most are claiming the (I think) £26pm and saving on commuting costs. I'm choosing not to as the institution is taking a hammering financially. I'll be thankful if there are no redundancies ... Most people are taking their "entitlement" though.

I got supplied an office chair and laptop, calls made via the laptop. Bought my own desk

I'm talking about the future now but I don't know anyone who will be going back to 5 days a week in a central London office, this is a huge shift.

www.fintechfutures.com/2020/05/major-banks-assess-covid-19-working-from-home-policies/

www.law.com/international-edition/2020/05/27/slater-and-gordon-to-close-london-office-staff-to-work-from-home-permanently/

"SMEs, which are defined as businesses with fewer than 250 employees, accounted for 60% of all private sector jobs in the UK, a total of 16.6 million."

I don't think most people work for a big employer that provides big subsidies to their employees due to employees being onsite or doing business travel. Tea bags & milk is as good as it gets for most.

It's good that many businesses can still find a way to be successful, or even more successful, with enforced WFH of course.

Have I said otherwise @yeOldeTrout?

Tea bags & milk is as good as it gets for most.

Not all though which was my point

Lots of people have been asking about this at my work (public sector). For me it's not too bad as I'm saving petrol money of about £15 per week, although my leccy bills have gone up a bit (all those awful video calls!). Some are very worried about fuel costs in winter. Originally they asked us not to claim the £6 but have said we can now. We have been told we will be wfh 6-12 months which is depressing. I'll be using hot water bottles and just heating one room over the winter.

We were offered I think £4 a week but could opt to donate it to NHS charities instead so I’ve done that. The commuting costs I’m saving are huge vs what additional electric is costing.

The phone thing fine, don’t you have a work phone? But if someone I knew said they wanted their work to contribute towards their electricity costs I’d think they were a cheeky fucker I’ll be honest!

We have been told we will be working from home until at least 1st September due to coronavirus, according to MSE I could retrospectively claim £138 in total for the period from 16th March - 1st September (£4/wk before 6th April, then £6/wk after) without having to do a self assessment.

Might think about it nearer the time I'm going back, every little penny helps. Has anyone applied for it?

I work for a large corporation. Business fortunately unaffected by the pandemic. My building which normally has 400 people in it, has been down to a couple of security guards and facilities staff. They are clearly saving money on electricity, water, etc. I live close to work, so unlike others, virtually no commuting costs to save, but I'm obviously using more water and electricity at home. I can live with these costs as they're not huge in the grand scheme.

However, if this carries on into autumn/winter and I need to have my heating on during the day (which again they will be saving costs on) I don't think I'll be so unbothered by the cost.

The one I'm curious about is that our canteen is allegedly subsidised, and those who work in locations without canteens are given a cash lunch allowance in lieu. I am also be entitled to the same allowance if a client meeting takes me out of the office over lunch time. I believe this is in the terms of employment, so wonder if they should be paying the allowance whilst we aren't in the office (I.e. if you can't access the subsidised canteens you get the allowance). It's £4 a day, so would really add up!

We have a prepayment meter for gas and electric (leftover from tenants years ago) and I’ve been topping it up twice as much over lockdown, it’s costing a fortune!

Although I guess I am saving on train fare so swings and roundabouts

I'd feel cheeky asking for extra. My large employer isn't paying anything but staff are saving on commuting costs, in our household it comes to about £80/week. We aren't using much more electricity and so far the extra heating costs are minimal. Heating might cost more in the winter, though hopefully if DC are back at school I can just use a small electric heater in our study so we won't be spending any more than what we save in car fuel/trains.

We also save on lunches, snacks etc - it's definitely cheaper eating at home.

I have ordered stationary since lockdown and claimed on expenses though, and if I needed a new office chair I'd expect my employer to reimburse me (or provide one).

When I started working from home, the cost saving of not driving (£40/week) more than covered everything. It was effectively a pay rise. It seemed a fair trade off to me. (Quite aside from the 10 hours a week saved not sitting in traffic).

As such it seemed a little too grabby to suggest I should get extra for expenses. Although I used the company mobile so had no phone expenses.

One thing I did do was to set up a seperate broadband connection that was in the companies name, and which was paid from expenses. Mainly because it seems incredibly unprofessional to rely on a domestic package (and I wonder what the T&Cs would say), but also because if there were to be any problems I wouldn't be twiddling my thumbs for too long.

We are getting £6pw for wfh, plus reimbursed for all other purchases required for home working. I've bought an office chair and a new printer.

We’re not being offered although we’ve been told we can take kit from the office. I’m saving a fortune in commuting costs though (although I realise many are not).

I get about £20 a month as a WFH allowance; I use a company phone.

Yeah I do use my heating and WiFi, but I don’t begrudge either