£30 - surely no longer enough for work expenses and Xmas party!

[Thursday5pmisginoclock]

For those in corporate roles where you can claim expenses…what are you company policy amounts for an evening meal when working away? Our £30 allowance feels so mean, and it’s the same amount for Christmas party! I mean what do you get for that nowadays??? Especially if we were to meet in London?

also why is the personal car payment still £0.45ppm - I am pretty sure it was that 10 maybe even 15/20 years ago!

inflation has not caught up surely…?

Is this commonplace?

Why does 1 course equate to a tiny meal? I travel a lot for work and eat very varied things. I'm not a lover of fast food so tend to avoid that. But I can usually get a chicken or fish dish with rice and veg, or a curry for way less than £20 which leaves plenty for a side if desired or another course.

And today in 'nice problems to have'...

Eh? what’s that got to do with price of bread?
people travelling aren’t a home…they can’t do the 12 meals on 1 chicken trick. Or the kitchen sink soup at end of week.
they don’t have access to a kitchen, fridge, cooking utensils.
they have to eat food prepared in a professional kitchen, in a place that has to pay for cleaners, chefs, washer uppers, servers, business rates and taxes . Buying a meal outside your home will always cost way way more than preparing something tasty and healthy at home.
comapring meal allowances to what you’d pay in food at home is irrelevant and rather silly.

In my job (public sector) we pay for our own Christmas do. And tea bags 😭

£30 is loads for an ordinary evening meal. It’s just supposed to be some ordinary food, not a night on the razz.

£35 for an evening meal and 1 alcoholic drink can be included.

Christmas, £50 per person for event of our choice, we have chosen a night out at hotel which includes Prosecco & 3 courses at £48 each (South Wales)

I agree about mileage rates - it's wrong they are at 2001 levels. It should be 92p per mile today, if kept in line with inflation.

£30 for dinner I could live with. It's the £5 for breakfast that I think is stingy (at my company). If you have to leave the house at an ungoldly time in the morning, you will not find any healthy-ish breakfast for £5. It'll be a coffee and pastry, at best.

Dh gets 25 per night and doesn't struggle in London?

Either way.
You’re talking about Christmas Parties and I’m not.

When my husband worked away he always managed to eat for around £10-15 per night. It was a mixture of things like

Wetherspoons (usually steak or chicken with jacket potato & salad or a lasagne/curry/pasta meal)
Chinese street food he used to take back to his digs (that was in London)
Toby carvery or similar
Spit roast chicken and salad from local supermarket or street vendor

My work Xmas bash cost each of us (school staff) £25. We paid this ourselves, there was £0 contribution from our employer. That was for the hire of the venue, one drink, and a buffet. I'm sure £30 a person, which your employer is presumably paying, will be adequate.

Re: Breakfast, you can get a bacon sandwich or porridge pot or yoghurt granola pot and a piece of fruit from most places for about £5

Jury service pays £5.71 for the day and not all courts have tea/coffee/water in the jury room!

I was travelling for work earlier this week; our expenses policy hasn't been updated since 2016 and the allowance for lunch is £7. That's not even enough for a sandwich and a can of Coke in Pret these days. Inflation is crazy, and if you're travelling for work you don't generally have the option of bringing your own food, so you have to make the best of it. I'm fairly certain that senior management aren't living off supermarket meal deals when they're away, however.

You see I'd see Pret as a luxury, the fact there are non here might make a difference.

The £5 lunch allowance set by HMRC would easily get a Tesco Meal Deal of a sandwich/wrap/salad/pasta pot a drink and a bag of crisps or piece of fruit. Or it would get a filled jacket potato at a local cafe.

😲 People get their Christmas meals PAID FOR!!!!!!! 😲

Prompted by this thread to check my employer's policy. I don't think it can have been updated in a while, as it says that when travelling for work you can claim a combined total of £20 per 24 hour period, which is apparently supposed to cover one "light meal", one "full meal" and additionally "up to two beverages". I think I might email HR, as that's plainly ridiculous!

@Comefromaway I don’t know where you are, but £5 for a jacket potato would get you a potato with no toppings here, if that. Tesco meal deal is exactly £5 and you need to find a tescos for that first (and have no dietary requirements). Remember that this is for business travel - you generally don’t have time and are unfamiliar with the area.

We run a business and I'd NEVER expect our staff to contribute to a Christmas meal out. It's a work occasion, albeit a social one. It's a treat and thanks for the year.

Sorry OP, you're not allowed to complain.
Hope this helps to clarify!

PS Don't forget that the 12.5% minimum tip will come out of the £30.

We don’t have a limit but can’t claim back alcoholic drinks.

YANBU, the idea is not to over-indulge but also it shouldn’t be expected that the employee is more frugal than they would usually be.

When travelling on business you are usually giving up your own time as well and having a not luxurious but enjoyable meal compensates for it in a way.

How is Pret a luxury when huge swathes of old school caffs went bust in Covid and for breakfast, that’s basically all that’s left?

Also, Tesco Meal Deals are over processed junk food - why should I eat crap, poor quality food because I happen to be working away from home?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-66021503

A lot of people seem convinced that London is super expensive when in fact if you hunt about there's lot of bargains food wise to be had.

Meal allowance £30 dinner AND breakfast (only claimable if staying overnight)
Christmas Party 😂 that allowance was removed 15 years ago (private not public sector) Christmas is self funded
Mileage my company follows HMRC, until they change it from 45p for private cars it will not change
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowances-travel-mileage-and-fuel-allowances/travel-mileage-and-fuel-rates-and-allowances

Chains always tend to have deals. And if you stay away from chains you can always get healthy, tasty, filling food well within budget.

If I'm away for several nights I tend to ask for an Air Bnb instead of a hotel and cook.

Ours is only £15.