If you're now WFH, have you bought yourself new furniture and equipment?

[Thurlow]

Minor debate at work. Our large corporate firm has everyone wfh and likely to until next spring. Some colleagues have been working for months on a sofa with a laptop and no mouse. I expressed surprise they didn't at least buy themselves a mouse (and even more that they didn't just ask IT for one!) and someone else said perhaps they didn't want to spend their own money on equipment.

Firm is now gearing up to get people proper equipment at home. But I did think, surely if you're saving several hundred pound a month on travel, as most of my colleagues are, you can spend a little on getting a reasonable set up at home of you have room...

I've recently bought a desk, and a long ethernet cable out of my own pocket; work will be providing a monitor and docking station. Is anyone else buying themself, or should it be on work to provide everything?

@PhoneLock

I think you can claim £6 per week from your employer for working from home

Isn't that a tax concession? My employer refused to pay any extra for WFH. They reckon that not having to commute or pay for parking is adequate compensation.

My colleagues who normally cycle to work disagree.

Not sure how it works @PhoneLock.

Has anyone else heard of it?

I have a small work laptop but it really isnt suitable for wfh for me as I need 2 screens so I brought home my work pc and monitors. I use the laptop for teams meetings.
I bought a new office chair and tiny printer, reimbursed by work.

www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home

If you click through the eligibility questions and you select 'no' to has your employer paid for them, it says what to do. Also for those not working at home you can claim for washing your uniform that way too.

I spent £350 on a laptop, and £10 on a mouse.

I have bought myself a desk (from Amazon - it wasn't expensive)
My boss told me to go into work and pick up my PC and chair and anything else I need.

I now have an office set up in one of the spare bedrooms and it is perfect.

We all had to complete home working assessment and DSE questionnaires when we were sent home. Work provided new monitor and dock for laptop, would have provided chair had I needed one.

Already have a mouse (used to sometimes WFH with work laptop - need that middle mouse button for when I'm using the linux partition on the machine while I'm programming).

My work's come up with what I think is a sensible compromise - we can get up to £50 reimbursed, so you can buy cheap stuff on the firm's dollar, and if you want more expensive stuff you have to pay yourself.

My main problem at home is lack of space. (Well that and the home schooling which has been a disaster area.)

We've been allowed to bring our work equipment home so I have chair, laptop, monitor, keyboard and mouse. The only thing I couldn't bring home was a desk so I am surviving on a fold up rickety table which is far from ideal. I don't want to buy a desk because we don't have space in the house for a desk long term and I do think it's up to the company to provide all the equipment needed rather than expecting employees to foot the bill. I'm already dreading having to pay heating costs when it gets colder. I can see the argument for buying your own equipment if you are liking working from home and are saving money by doing so. That's not the case for me. I would not work from home by choice and it's costing me money to do so. I'm not sure why I should suck it up just because I'm lucky enough to still have a job?

We all had to do a work from home risk assessment. I got delivered a chair, extra large computer screen, mouse and keyboard.

DH works in the private sector and got about £300 worth of equipment (a second screen (he’s an accountant), a keyboard, mouse and desk chair) after the first month of WFH from his employer. I work for the public sector and we haven’t been offered anything. The only thing I brought home was my work ipad; my laptop and other equipment belongs to me.

Is work equipment covered on home insurance?

We were told to take what we needed. Already had a PC monitor so didn’t take that. Did buy a cable to connect it to my docking station but I’m a lucky one who’s saving commuting costs. We have awful broadband (one of the ‘black spots’) and my manager rang to see if we were in a dreadful contract and offer to buy us out if so (sadly not, just the location!). I know where a colleague didn’t have broadband work have paid for it. Pretty good but goodness people are still complaining...

Used to be the case that wfh was a health ans safety obligation for employer.....

How are my demands sizeable?

Many people who are employed and wfh are eligible to claim back various expenses for utilities, clothing and even a new laptop. Even before CV various things could be claimed back via your tax.

It's worth people look into this more to see if it's financially viable for them.

www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/buying-other-equipment

This also explains more about the potential wfh legal issue for renters.

www.ft.com/content/9ef5d368-8621-11ea-b555-37a289098206

DH bought a new chair and claimed it back on expenses, as he is allowed to do under the terms of his company policy.

Oh and a bigger computer monitor

I am a SAHM/lady of leisure so no changes for me

My employer has announced that they're shutting their head office (London - City address) and we're all working 'on an agile basis' going forward.

They've provided us with laptops, headsets and company mobiles.

They've been arranging delivery of office chairs, monitors (x1 or x2 depending on request), keyboards etc from head office over the past few weeks.

They're giving us a £50 contribution allowance towards setting up a 'workspace'

And we've received guidance on how to claim the WFH allowance on our tax returns.

I can't really complain, I don't think they've done badly at all.

I have, mainly because my temp set up was killing my shoulder, i was too low for the temp table i was using. So now have proper little workstation and i have had a bit of a move around in my living room to accomodate. Not going back to the office for the forseeable so i figured best do something before my shoulder gives up completely