Employer provision if you are working from home

[Pensylvan]

So, like a lot of people I'm guessing - fast tracked working from home. Using my own PC and broadband and home phone line because my mobile does not work in my house.

I do a lot of spreadsheets so am missing big screen *2, proper keyboard and mouse. Plus lack of printer and rather uncomfortable desk. Plus having to make work calls on home phone line.

My employer has nor been forthcoming about funding the cost of these missing items. Despite mentioning the amount we might be saving on commuting costs :(

How is it for you?

We have laptops in docking stations at work (hot desk office in the private sector) so we all brought them home. We got an official announcement that any WFH kit bought without prior approval would not be reimbursed. I spent 100 quid on a new monitor (the ones at work can’t stand alone so it wouldn’t have been feasible to borrow one) but given my high salary I am happy to offset it against commuting costs - but if I had put my foot down and insisted on them providing one I’m pretty sure they would have: colleagues who’ve needed replacement laptops have had them couriered to home in pretty short order.

Everyone was asked about their WFH capacity in early March.

I work for the NHS and haven’t been given any additional equipment. Desktop, 2 x screens, keyboard and mouse came home in my car. Ed couldn’t use our own equipment as we are all on the hospital network.No phone or printer. We use MS Teams to communicate but most of us have to use our phones as most of us don’t have laptops. I’m lucky we have a spare table and I’m using a dining room chair which is rubbish for my back. We were moving towards paper free office but no where near so it is really challenging without the paper files we are used to.

Absolutely nothing from my employer. I use my own laptop, but can't do everything from there, so have to go into the office occasionally where it is impossible to social distance. When I do WFH, my back is killing me from sitting at a kitchen table hunched over a laptop. Oh and my boss seems to think it's fine to phone me about work on my personal phone - on my day off

I've worked from home since July 2019. I've always worked at the dining table with a stool that suits my back. I've had workspace training to make sure I set up properly.

I work for a charity so never bothered claiming the maximum work from home allowance (£18 per month is the most you can claim without tax implications) because I was saving on commuting costs.

I bought my own laptop through a tech scheme but we have an IT company who maintains it and my work paid for me to upgrade to Windows 10 pro so that we could be secure.

I connect to a separate monitor which I provide as well as the keyboard and mouse.

I have unlimited calls, text and data on my personal mobile so I just pay for that because I want it.

I'm saving my charity a fortune!!! I'm saving them around £250-£300 per month for a serviced desk, plus broadband, tech, landline, mobile costs, utility costs.

I wouldn't have it any other way though. Love the cause and love the flexibility of WFH. Though I did wonder if I'd hate it. I don't. I love it too.

I'm having to share my space now though with a WFH DH and 2 school at home (SAH?) DC.

The HMIE (Scotland's equivalent of OFSTED) rating of this Secondary and Primary is not good...

Do you really need to be printing stuff ?
We went virtually paperless some years ago.
What are you doing with stuff you are printing ? Can't yu do that on the screen ?

Then, I don't know about anyone else, but I pay a fixed sum for my broadband. It hasn't cost anymore this month with two of us wfh + three others entertaining themselves at home, than it did in January, or February. I presume you had broadband before ? Are you paying anymore now ?

Yes, we're probably using more electricity, but not running into large amounts, and I'm saving on commute costs like everyone else. I'm not worse off for pluggin in the computers.

Now, I can see that it feels unfair not to have a work computer or laptop. We all have laptops as we are expected to work all over the City anyway, but my dh brought what normally lives on his desk at work, home with him.

I genuinely am surprised that companies are funding furniture. Do people not realise that many businesses are going through an economic nightmare now ? That many of them won't survive ?

Everybody is having to manage the best they can. If you haven't got a table in your house, have you actually got empty rooms to put this new furniture in ?

I've been based at home for the Last 10years and wored for a charity but recently Tuped to a new employer, also a charity. Suplied with a brand new top of the range laptop, brand new work phone, ergonomic chair, new desk, h & s extras such as laptop risers, document holders etc. Also paid a £26 per month home working allowance. I have no complaints at all.

If you have broadband already, there is no extra cost of making calls or being on-line AFAIK.

You can claim £6 a week tax relief if you need to work from home. Plus the reduced cost of lunches and travelling.

I brought my laptop and large screen home with me. Employer provided a RAP that allows us to use office phones at home and to transfer calls from.one home to another, so customers won’t know the difference. Few people really need printers, just use screenshots.
The only thing that isn’t great is sitting for hours on a kitchen chair.

My works got me a desk, desk chair, computer and monitor with the keyboard and mouse, mobile and a headset. Had to rearrange the whole room to find space. I'm still in my actual office half the week aswell.

Already had work laptop. Got my screen and keyboard shipped to my house. No offer of reimbursement for WiFi use etc. They of course paid the screen and keyboard shipping

It's never crossed my mind in the decades I've worked from home to claim for electricity or heating - I'm saving so much not commuting, and wfh isn't for my employer's benefit.

• Do you really need to be printing stuff ? We went virtually paperless some years ago. What are you doing with stuff you are printing ? Can't yu do that on the screen ?*

I do like hard copies of papers to scrawl on, take away to read elsewhere, highlight the important parts etc. If I only had a laptop screen I'd want to print more ... but would get a bigger monitor ahead of a printer. And then display on that plus the laptop screen so one to look at, one to work on if referring to another document type of thing.

It's never crossed my mind in the decades I've worked from home to claim for electricity or heating
You claim from HMRC. It’s a set rate. About £6 a week.

I wfh full time normally. It’s a big Pharma company. They don’t pay my broadband but they do find desk & chair & a company mobile (which doesn’t work in my village on the sticks!!). They also provide - laptop, dock, screen, keyboard and mouse and a scanner/printer.

For COVID wfh people they took their laptops only and it’s only now that requests are coming in for more kit. I think there’s a lot of monitors and keyboards being supplied.

Originally my work said that if you wanted your screen from work you'd need to go in and collect it yourself but then packaged them up and sent them by courier. They are too big for my desk so I have not bothered. My work laptop is tiny but my own laptop is slightly bigger, so I tend to use my own as far as possible.

DH uses his own laptop but fortunately bought a new one in January with a 17 inch screen so he's not too bad though he misses two screens. He has a phone headset too.

We have a printer and bought some ink for it last week. DH has been told he can spend £100 on office items so may expense but if not I will put it on my tax return.

I have a work mobile for calls and we both have unlimited calls on our personal mobile phones anyway.

It's never crossed my mind in the decades I've worked from home to claim for electricity or heating

I wonder if it would open up a can of worms relating to your council tax and business rates etc. I've WFH for years but never claimed for that.

The only thing that isn’t great is sitting for hours on a kitchen chair

Interestingly I hate office chairs and use an ordinary dining chair with two cushions.

I have an app on my mobile which let's me receive calls and make them as if at work so cost is charged to work. Laptop is mine but has tonnes of work software on and work can dial into it remotely.

Missing having two screens

Your employer has a duty to go health and safety wise so should make sure you have what you need to work safely. Have you asked for the equipment you need?

Have they said how long you're expected to work at home?

Most employers won't permit use of own IT for security reasons. Not everyone has a home pc or a compatible one - what are those who don't doing? Have they been provide equipment?

For the broadband - everyone has that, I shouldn't think any employers fund that for home workers anymore. For the phone - I just declined to make/receive calls on my own phone. But trickier if they have given you a work phone and it doesn't work where you live.

My employer has funded the provision of whatever people need. I had my special chair couriered to me within a week, and we've been allowed to purchase screens, mice, keyboard, risers, whatever we need.

we have the lop top provided by work but are expected to provide everything else. I have a separate screen, headset, keybora, mouse. plus a proper office chair. before we were allowed to work from home we had to do a workplace assessment

How does that work in the current circumstances though, for people who are suddenly forced into WFH and don’t want to do it long term?

We can order a monitor (I got mine from the office plus my keyboard and mouse) and other equipment if necessary. Some staff (lower grades) are getting a home working allowance as well.

Friends husband (civil service) has been told they can get a desk / chair etc.

I was able to clear my desk when we closed the office so have screen, keyboard, mouse and chair at home. I use my laptop as a 2nd screen and bought a stand for it so it's at the right height, which I can claim on expenses for. DH on the other hand just has his laptop!

The company won't pay the allowance hmrc allows for working from home which would help with extra costs of being here all day, but we are saving on commuting costs so I think it all evens out.

I'm in the same position as you, @deeplybaffled, but because DP is using the spare room for WFH and there's nowhere else for me to go.

I'm using my own laptop rather than the shitty work Chromebook with a weeny screen, but popped into the office and picked up my keyboard and the tracker ball I use instead of a mouse. I could have brought my chair home as well, but it would only get in the way. Have a work mobile phone, but use our own broadband.

We don't have a printer, but I dont really need to print anything these days. Benefit appeals can be submitted online now and that was vitrtually the only thing we couldn't do electronically. Because I'm only a mile from the office, I go down there every 7-10 days or so to check the post and scan it to whoever in the team it needs to go to.

I'm in the 3rd sector and DP is public sector, so no chance of any financial help. And I'm losing out on the money I used to make on my work mileage, which probably earned me £50-£100 a month after deducting the cost of the fuel. The people who normally do several hundred work miles a month will notice the difference now they're not going out on visits.

We got permission to claim our kit from the office in the week before full lockdown. Where people haven’t had unlimited broadband they’ve funded that. I had polite enquires when IT found out how slow ours is as to whether we were locked into a contract with a slow provider and whether work could fund an additional connection and I explained it was just the location of the house! Other costs are not being reimbursed that I’m aware of.

The company won't pay the allowance hmrc allows for working from home which would help with extra costs of being here all day

I believe there is a way of claiming that from HMRC, @WhatWouldTheDoctorDo. We were told early on that our employer would tell us how to go about it, but I haven't heard any more about it.

The biggest extra cost for me is all the extra tea I'm getting through. We get free tea and coffee in the office!

blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2020/04/martin-lewis--working-from-home-due-to-coronavirus--claim-p6-wk-/

Our staff took their screens and many have collected chairs too.

We did DSE/H&S reviews with each of our team members at the start and they have been reviewed monthly or if an issue is raised. We're only WFH a couple of days a week and in work the others as a lot of our work can't be done remotely.
Our H&S team have been great delivering screens, collecting people's specially adjusted chairs etc, people have been offered desks and chairs if they don't have them at home (no one has said yes to a desk yet) we can't print remotely due to data security and the nature of the info we hold but there is an admin in the office 3 days a week to print and send any letters etc and to process the safeguarding referrals etc. It's actually been very good. Everyone had laptops and mobiles already other than some admin but that was rolled out very quickly and they were paid in full while waiting for their tech