£6 tax relief per week for home working costs - a pittance?

[suggestionsplease1]

I'm just trying to get my head around this - so if you're forced into home working due to Covid you can claim tax relief on £6/week for additional expenses due to extra heating/ electricity use....so for a 20% tax payer that amounts to getting back £1.20 per week?!

My additional expenditure on gas/electric due to Covid will far exceed that, as I imagine most people's will....is this not a bit of a cop out?!

There seems to be something about employers can make this additional £6 payment per week to staff as well - that hasn't happened for us - is it really happening for employees elsewhere?

Finally, I'm going to try to put in more accurate figures as I have to fill in self assessments anyway, but I am hampered by the fact that I don't have a smart meter. I thought one way to do it would be to compare a previous year's expenditure when I wasn't working from home with the present year's expenditure - would that be acceptable as proof of additional costs do you think? (I know there's only going to be about 6/7 weeks worth of homeworking to account for for this self assessment but it will be more relevant for next years 31st Jan deadline.)

[RedskyBynight]

Commute =15 minute walk to work
Lunch = packed from home.

Actually I'm spending more on lunch because I'm having more "exotic" things with a kitchen and range of food at my disposal.

Most of the employees at my workplace live within 5-10 minutes drive. Many walk or cycle. Not everyone spends a fortune on commuting.

[RedskyBynight]

And it's the less well off employees (i.e. the ones that can least afford to pay higher bills) that tend to live close to the office and not be saving on commuting. Top level management are all saving loads.

[TonMoulin]

Well DH had a 15mins commute by car.... he isn’t saving that much on commuting.
He also never bought any coffee at costa on his way to work.
His shoes were provided by work (steel cap toes) so again no difference.

This idea that you can offset your heating bill with commuting, clothes costs doesn’t work for everyone....

[JayAlfredPrufrock]

You can please some of the people ...

[FrogFairy]

I can’t claim it because I don’t earn enough to pay tax, but I don’t mind because I still have a job (at least for the next few months ) and also I am hugely grateful that I can stay safe at home.

[MeadowHay]

I think a lot of people hear "WFH" and it conjures up mental images of well paid professionals who used to spend £££ commuting into London every day and wearing dry-clean only suits and eating out at lunch. Whereas in reality many of us are part-time, low paid workers who had casual dress codes at work and got (relatively) cheap buses to and from work and usually took a packed lunch. I dread to think what my heating bills will be, about to submit a meter reading for the for the first time in about 3/4 months. I spend a lot more WFH because of the heating bills.

[MilkGoatee]

Well, I claimed it, and got the new tax code. I wouldn't have expected my employer to pay us for it. They're very generous already, making allowances for home schooling requirements and mental health breaks as needed. As a company I think they calculated a 20% increase of time spent on projects, and I think it turned out in actuality to be 30% so that has been a significant cost. I'm perfectly fine that all staff are expected to sort out their own tax relief element.

[JinglesWish]

Happy with the £6 a week freebie from HMRC. Doesn’t cover utilities cost of wfh, but I’m also saving £350 a month on train fares!!! And an astonishing 66 hours a month not spent commuting!!

[thevassal]

@JayAlfredPrufrock

You can please some of the people ...

yes but the home working allowance/tax offset isn't supposed to be about 'pleasing people,' it's supposed to be about legally and fairly recompensing employees for additional work necessitated expenses, same as mileage payments if you need to use your own car for work, or the money you get back if you are required to wear and wash a uniform, subsistence payments if you need to stay overnight, etc.

That's the whole reason why home workers are entitled to the £6 usually - because it's recognised that they will have additional costs that office workers won't.

[StarlitTrees]

I'm fed up of people complaining about things as small as this.
Do people think this is free money? The government are borrowing hand over fist to pay people these benefits and supports, we will be paying for this for years to come in increased taxes. Everyone, including the government is just doing what they can to try and get people through this shit storm. And not everyone can just have everything they want! Let's just be thankful that we are alive with a roof over our heads. Because if you can afford to be on mumsnet complaining over litterally a few pounds, life's not that bad is it?

[PaperMonster]

I work three days a week and don’t pay tax. My commute costs aren’t that high, but I am spending an extra £5 a day on electricity working from home, that I can ill afford. Prior to this lockdown I was in work on a rota basis with one day at home and I had been thinking of asking my employer if I could actually come into work that day as it would be cheaper for me to do so, even though it’s easier for me to see my students from home as the internet’s better! Not that I think I’ll have a job for much longer anyway.

[montysma1]

My husband our main earner and newly self employed in 2019 hasn't had a bean of government assistance despite paying tax for 30 years. Due to loop holes of dates and percentage of earnings.
I am sure he will be expected to shoulder the increased tax burden l
to pay for all the help that other people got.

Complaing about only getting tax relief on £6 month when so may people are in utter shit with no prospect of getting out of it seems a bit crass.

[TonMoulin]

I’m sorry but that’s NOT free money.
This is supposed to represent the cost in utilities to be working from home. Because this is part of the cost of work. Just like you would get some compensation if you were using your car too go and see a customer. I’m struggling to see how this is being grabby and wanting free money.

WHF for us has me at reorganising the house (no spare bedroom to be used), buying a desk and office chair as well as a few more bits and pieces. The company DH works for isn’t forth coming re allowing people to buy pens and notepads. So that’s coming out from our own money again.
So yes there is a cost to working from home. One that isn’t covered by companies.... And that’s wo the inconvenience it’s creating.

[h0rsewithn0name]

I know five people who have died from Covid-19.
I know hoards of people who have lost their jobs.

I count myself very lucky to not be one of them.

Also, I track our gas and electricity like a nerd. Our total bill this year will go up by £3 per month, because I'm careful with our usage. That's with me formally wfh one day a week, now increased to five.

[thevassal]

@PlanDeRaccordement

Christ’s sake, those working from home on full pay don’t need an extra £6 a week because most workers in this situation are saving money buy having no transport costs and fewer bought lunches/coffees.

Meanwhile millions have been made redundant and are feverishly job searching from home while eating through their savings. They don’t get £6 a week to offset the costs of working at job searching from home. They get fuck all.

So yes YABU to complain about free government money you are getting is not enough when millions in greater need are getting zero.

You seem to be someone who values hyperbole and outrage over actual facts, but just in case....

1) out of interest, how many of the millions of people who comprise the workforce did you survey to confirm that 'most' of us commute long distances to work and buy lunch there? Because most of my office did neither, as multiple others on this thread have said.
2) latest figures suggest 800,000 people have been made unemployed by covid but does not include anyone who has since found another job - employment as a whole is 'only' down 144,000 since march. Obviously horrific for anyone who is affected by it but they aren't your hyperbolic 'millions!'
3) if I wasn't working I wouldn't be charging my laptop, monitor, and phone daily. You know, those work-related expenses the £6 homeworkers allowance is legally and specifically for, (and has been for years) not some lovely bonus the nice kind government decided to give us this year to offset Covid...
I could also save a fortune by moving in with my support bubble which I can't do while working.
4) Anyone unemployed job hunting would either get JSA or Universal credit, which is far from a huge amount, but is certainly not "zero"

[eeyore228]

I think that lots of people are losing for a variety of reasons. Personally i used to commute to work on a coach, the services have been reduced so much I can’t use it so instead of £15 per shift commute I now have to go by train. Which is £23 plus £5 ish for tube travel. There’s no one who will give a rebate or money back. I have to suck it up because I can’t work from home. Yes it’s hard to lose that much in a month but lots of people are having to compromise something, whether educationally, financially or health perspectives. The fact you are getting something is better than nothing and just sounds petty complaining about. There are very few in any winners in all this. In another few years you’ll end up losing more than that in tax hikes.

[lunalucie]

Would you rather they give you more then you'll end up paying more back in the future because make no mistake we'll all pay for furlough in the end regardless if we claimed it or not.

[IndieKate]

Not everyone has saved money by working from home.
We live within walking distance of both our offices and we both used to take our lunch to work with us. I suppose we have saved on buying work clothes but we both work in jobs where casual clothes are acceptable.

[AldiAisleofCrap]

@EastWater
I applied recently and they changed my tax code. I'll pay about £300 less tax between now and end of the tax year as I've been WFH since March.
No you will pay £62.40 less tax which is 20% of £312.

[AldiAisleofCrap]

@PaperMonster how are you spending an £5 a day on electricity? A laptop costs 25p a day to run , lights pennies. That makes no sense.

[TonMoulin]

I’ve always wondered why so many people are playing the ‘look at how many people have it harder than you’ as a way to convince people they are not entitled or worthy of support....

Yes people have died.
Yes people have been made redundant.
People haven’t all been receiving support from the government, see the self employed but not just them.

That doesn’t mean that those that are working from home aren’t struggling too.
DH is working from home but we don’t have a spare bedroom or space in the bedroom for a desk. We don’t have a lot of spare space in the house altogether tbh. So we’ve had to reorganise the house to accommodate a desk and an office chair (that he had to buy himself) to replace the dinning table arrangement . This has impacted the whole family (but at least DH doesn’t suffer from back pain anymore).
Saying that he should be considering himself lucky is

[Chloemol]

The £6 per week is tax free,( or £24 pm month if paid monthly) if your employer won’t pay it, then you can ask to have your tax code amended

That said an employer can also agree to pay more if they so wish, but only the first £6/£24 is tax free you would have to pay tax above that

That said how much did your commute cost you? You are saving that, how man6 coffees/lunches did you buy, you maybe saving there

[Haenow]

I don’t think this is something to be outraged about but I’m both bemused and cross at the ”but you’re saving money on coffee and lunches!” brigade. Typical middle class MN. I don’t know a single person who buys lunch or coffee regularly, maybe as a treat. Perhaps my friends and colleagues aren’t as rich as some of you! I’m not saving money working at home but I’m grateful for having a job and not complaining.

[Motnight]

Kitkat151 I work for the NHS and am receiving the £6 week tax free with my salary.

[newtb]

Not sure if it's still the case, but if you had for example a mandatory course that you had to go on and your employer didn't pay for stationery, extra cost for coffee etc then you could make a claim under S198 of the Income and Corporation Tax Act.
The same would apply to working from home. It is however the 'extra' cost so, if you get free coffee at work you claim the 'extra' cost. Free coffee at work is a taxable benefit.

I used to claim £300/year for working from home in 1999/2000, and that just about covered the cost of heating/computer stationery for a year. Work out your additional costs carefully and claim the correct amount.
If it's cost you £500 say, and your employer has given you £150 and you have no choice but to work from home than you can claim under S198 the remaining £350. If you get nothing at all you can claim the 'home office' costs.
However, you have to be able to provide evidence such as prior year bills showing the units used, not just the cost difference.
It's a bit of a faff doing the calculation, but worth it.

I was told about the course stationery by a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and an FCA, so I tried claiming it and got about £600 back, including an interest supplement relating to earlier tax years. If HMRC pay you interest, it's neither declarable nor taxable as it's judged to be their fault.

Disclaimer, I'm not giving advice, I'm just saying what I've done in the past.