Any employers supporting WFH costs?

[Lochroy]

It seems like WFH is set to last and winter is coming... are any employers doing anything to contribute to the costs they would normally be facing if employees were in the office? I work for a huge corporation with an office which is completely shut. Business is carrying on as normal.

FWIW, I don't have an expensive commute so not really saving there. I think it's costing me to WFH.

Things I have in mind are:

• Electricity (laptop and screen on all day, work phone charging, kettle boiling )
• Heating - will become a biggie
• Subsidised lunch canteen (sounds fancy, it's pretty basic but part of our Ts and Cs)
• Water (both drinking water and toilet flushing!)
• plus some random others - I've had to do a little printing so that's my paper and ink, etc.

I know some of these sound flippant, but it's been six months already and it will really add up once heating comes into the mix.

I'm aware you can claim £6/week tax relief but I don't do a tax return so that would be complex to do.

Have any employers in similar situations started to support employees in this respect?

For every person who walks to work with a subsidised canteen, there will also be someone who's saving an hour's commute that costs them hundreds of pounds a month, along with the similar cost of 2-3 meals and coffees outside the home each day and everything in between.

Employers can't possibly be expected to compensate all these variables, and not have someone feeling hard done by, but if there is a bigger permanent shift to WFH for office based staff, they will have a bigger pick of potential employees who can be employed on the basis that they won't have to be in daily commuting radius of a fixed workplace.

Of course we all might have more choice about where we work if we don't have to go there very often, so for those who don't like the conditions that they end up working under, will be free to look around to see what else is available.

Ours aren't, I've had to spent £150 on a desk and a chair plus extra electricity and heating costs. I didn't have a long commute so petrol costs haven't gone down either

On the office equipment front, we've all taken home our existing equipment from the office (chair, screen, laptop, headset). They would have allowed the desk for anyone who wanted one, but they're quite large so I don't expect many would have taken this up. There was an offer of a Mifi? thing for anyone without existing suitable broadband at home.

I was fortunate that we had a spare cheap Ikea table with detachable legs that's spent most of it's life down the side of a wardrobe but brought out for Christmas lunches, car boot sales and now my WFH desk.

Only financial offering was direction towards the tax allowance form.

DH isn’t saving any money wfh as he cycles or runs most days to get to work, he is getting fatter and less healthy though through lack of exercise on the weekdays. Fortunately I’m retired so at home anyway or that would have been extra expense with heating if I had been at work. He will claim the basic tax rebate mentioned above later in the year

I had to spend £1000 on an adequate laptop. Can I offset that against paye tax? How?

Can't he just go for a run or cycle anyway?

I'm saving 90 minutes a day commuting time and am using that time mostly to ensure that I go for a good brisk walk of at least an hour a day to get my 10000 steps in at least.

Someone told me today you can claim something back through your tax, something like £6 a week per adult. There's info on the Martin Lewis website about it...not looked yet but it would help.

Considering employers are probably locked into paying all the costs of running an office, such as either a bank loan for the purchase of the property or rent, business rates, some gas, water, electricity, insurance, etc for a much larger property than they need now or the near future; if I were you, I’d consider myself lucky to have a job!

@BarbaraofSeville

Can't he just go for a run or cycle anyway?

I'm saving 90 minutes a day commuting time and am using that time mostly to ensure that I go for a good brisk walk of at least an hour a day to get my 10000 steps in at least.

He could but it’s about 20 - 30 miles he does a day so not just a quick 5 miles, work is about 10 miles away and he sometimes takes a longer route, I think he gets the motivation doing it going to work and back as he is saving petrol money and use of car and getting exercise. He goes for a bike ride sometimes after work but it’s not daily.

Exactly this @Timeforabiscuit! I've turned down previous job offers because I didn't want to work from home and now we're in a position where we have no choice. I don't have a desk and don't have space for a desk and really not keen on having the "office" taking over my dining table Monday-Friday. I'll serious have to look at moving if this becomes a longer term thing but to get an additional room would probably double my current mortgage.

You don't do a tax return it's a P87 form.

No support. Heating costs and setting up a desk/chair at home biggest costs here.

My employer paid up to £400 expenses to set yourself up to work from home, although they won't pay anything towards ongoing expenses.. which is a bit annoying since i definitely couldn't do my job without an Internet connection. Still, I've been very lucky to still have my job and be paid in full so I'm not going to complain about it too much.

I had to spend £1000 on an adequate laptop. Can I offset that against paye tax? How?

Ask HMRC - as long as you don't include personal information and don't try in January their twitter is quite good for Q&A. I would have thought that if the employer hasn't paid it as a business expense but acknowledges that is essential to do your work, you might be able to do a tax return.

Bear in mind that you don't get £1000, you get 20-40% (depending on tax bracket) less tax taken off you (which in your case will probably be returned as a rebate). If it's shared between home use and work use you can only claim 50% of the cost. So given how much of a faff a tax return can be, it might or might not be worth your time, especially if you decide to engage an accountant to do the tax return.

I've just claimed online, took me 5 mins to fill the form out.

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

I seemed to be able to select any figure I wanted so not sure I've done it right....so I put £312 for the year?????

The other half was work from home precovid and all office furniture, it equipment, work phone, stationary etc is ordered through and delivered by a third party company at the expense of the employer. The broadband is reimbursed, car allowance paid, travel reimbursed or paid on company credit card, health insurance sorted, but this is all standard in the area of work.

The field in question is mostly work from home and there is a shortage of suitable people which probably supports such measures. If you work in an area where replacement workers are quick and cheap to come by, and the norm is that such things are not paid it is hard to see why employers would take on the expense.

@Plussizejumpsuit

I think this is going to be more of an issue. I'm freelance so not for me as I pay for it all anyway. There is an agreed rate for use of home as work space which you can take off tax return. I think it's £26 a month. But I wonder if employers need to start thinking like this with a flat rate? I know some people will jsut be greatful for a job and will save by working at home but equally it will cause difficulties for some

Hi! I have to do a tax return...at what section do you put this in please? I'm still not entirely knowledgeable with tax returns still!

You don't put it in a section. You need to use it in your income and expenditure as an expense. So say you get 20k a year in money from invoices. You take off the money you spent to do your job say this is 1k your profit is 19k and you are taxes on profit not on earnings. But you really have to look at what is acceptable to count as job expenses. You should do this before you become self employed or very soon if already self employed. For example you can't claim for entertaining. I don't have a lot of material expenses but obviously some people do say a self employed beautician. So mine is very simple but obviously for some people materials and rent of premises ext it gets more complicated.
Have you set up any kind of income and expenditure spreadsheet for your self employed work?

Sorry reply above for @TH22

Really hard to explain without just showing the spreadsheet!

I think this would be a whole different thread if you were writing this in six months time once everyone has run their heating over the winter months having seen what it does to their monthly direct debit

yep, @AuntieJoyce - am just buying some charity shop very chunky jumpers to keep costs down!

I would be more happy to have kept my job to be honest than worry about this the money I save on fares getting to work will cover it

@TheEndisCummings this is me

My employer started paying the £6pw fairly early on across the board which I was impressed by.
Equipment was just "take your office equipment". I am using my own laptop to log into my office pc, but that's a choice and males it easier when I do visit the office. Most of our staff have work laptops so not an issue.
Our offices have remain open for limited access throughout and we have to book in, so printing etc when needed is done in the office.
I changed my mobile phone package to unlimited minutes (so now £6pm instead of £5), and had unlimited broadband anyway.

I think the bigger issues are;

• heating over the winter, which has the potential to really add up.
• availability of appropriate working space, not directly a cost issue but definately impacts on well-being.

Of course having a job and the ability to work from home is a bonus, but if your employer is continuing to make money then why should this be at your personal cost when that wasn't the contracted agreement.

I had a client ask what their employees could claim for and sent them a couple of links this morning, www.gov.uk/guidance/check-which-expenses-are-taxable-if-your-employee-works-from-home-due-to-coronavirus-covid-19 covers the tax position of a number of reimbursements, and the £6 tax relief claim has already been linked in the thread. It is up to the employer amd employment contracts as to what they are going to offer though.

@AuntueJoyce, I'll go Starsky too then! I see it is available as a costume on Amazon....