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?

My work arnt offering anything. I find im saving money tho on diesel, coffees, lunches and so dont mind x

@TheEndisCummings

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

Why on earth isn't your employer paying for it? I wouldn't expect to be spending that sort of money and not being reimbursed

My company doesn't offer anything. I WFH anyway, and have done for a couple of years. I was happy to bite their hand off when offered it. But because I'm within 30 miles of an office and am 'choosing' to WFH, I am entitled to nothing. Zilch. If I lived further out, I'd have had an inital budget of £500 to get a desk/chair.

The company stopped paying internet about 4 years ago as it's expected employees have it at home.

I'm grateful to have the flexibility it provides and not have to travel to the office. The costs I incur for that I'm fine with.

If they opened the office would you prefer to be there to save your bills? If so, then I guess it's fair to look for a contribution.

The company stopped paying internet about 4 years ago as it's expected employees have it at home.

This is all very well but my internet is way slower than what we have in the office. I'm certainly not paying to upgrade it so they have to accept I can't work as quickly at home.

Doesn't the tax rebate only cover for direct work related expenses? How would electricity/gas get prorated for the one room being used?

We get £200 pa. Be honest though op, what are you saving in commuting costs?

I got allocated the oldest laptop in the world back in March. Not WiFi enabled. Nothing else.

But I'm saving in lunches, commute costs etc. And gaining about 1.5 hours every day by not having to travel to work.

Yes, household bills are going up. But do are the costs at the charity I work for. And income is decreasing alarmingly. I won't be asking for any subsidy or costs.

Equally, while we can afford to absorb increased utility bills, I won't be claiming the tax rebate either. It's just adding to the country's debt which we'll all have to help pay back eventually. Although I don't judge anyone who does claim - I understand that not everyone can comfortably accommodate higher bills.

I think if the costs are a concern you should enquire about returning to the office. Many companies are offering this to employees who can’t work from home for whatever reason.

Then you have a choice - put the heating or brave a wintry January morning commute. Personally I know which one I’d choose.

@BilboBercow

We get £200 pa. Be honest though op, what are you saving in commuting costs?

£200 a year would be nice!

I live 2.3 miles from work. At HMRC mileage rates, I'm saving £2.30 per week.

@Glittertwins

Doesn't the tax rebate only cover for direct work related expenses? How would electricity/gas get prorated for the one room being used?

I think it is just a nominal amount to cover general wfh expenses, just a token payment really so it doesn’t cost much to administer

Can't believe people want to claim when 1000's are losing their jobs each day

why should we not want to claim when some of us work for firms that are raking it in? Our work is not charity!

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

Claiming for broadband may have tax implications for example.

If you get company to pay then it should be for business use only.

I wfh. I don't get a contribution. I could if I wanted i guess but not something I have ever chased up

It doesn't really cost me a lot to work from home.

I did get a better WiFi package but I would have needed that anyway as kids got older.

@Ellsbells12

Can't believe people want to claim when 1000's are losing their jobs each day

Other people not having jobs is not an argument against employees being treated fairly.

My employer can't say "lots of people don't have jobs right now, so we expect you to work twice the number of hours for half the pay". Nor should they be able to say that you just have to suck up additional work expenses. I have colleagues who won't be heating the house while they work because they can't see how to afford the additional heating bills.

My husbands company have done a 15% pay reduction despite them losing no jobs, he works in architecture. He is working twice as hard as they furloughed lots of staff.
He has taken over a room I use for sewing for all his work. So my machines are gathering dust.
He has had to use our personal computer which is a few years old now so it's adding to the wear and tear on the computer. Then there is the electricity costs, I work in a school so the electricity ordinarily wouldnt be used in the day.
He has also had to use his personal mobile to field calls. They did give him a brick a few years ago but you cant answer any emails on it
(Think late 90s level phone ) Some calls come very early in the morning as he is now seen as available all hours.

There is also the Wifi that we would have anyway but it seems unfair that we are expected to support all these costs while we are £400 a month down on wages.

If this continues until Christmas it will be cancelled!

@TheEndisCummings

why should we not want to claim when some of us work for firms that are raking it in? Our work is not charity!

Ok fair enough but companies taking it in will still make people redundant .. like it or not it is an employers market at the moment

Mine aren't although they have provided absolutely all of my equipment including a really nice office-grade printer, desk, chair, laptop, docking station, monitor etc etc. We can also claim anything like printer ink, stationery, telephone calls etc on expenses with no questions asked.

Yes there's the heating and the wifi charges, but WFH suits me with the DC/school runs etc so I see it as a fair trade off.

If you are going to charge your employer for loo roll whilst WFH will that be by the sheet?

Yes, my employer has just started to paid us the £6 a week/£26 a month WFH allowance.

Water heating loo roll - these are all costs you would have if you weren’t working, so why should a business pay for it? Just because they were incidental costs of you being in the office doesn’t mean your employer is responsible to pay your toileting costs.

Lost subsidised lunch or other benefits (eg gym for some lucky employees) may be different.

Printing ink they should pay for.

Electricity and WiFi is debatable.

My husband has to use his own old laptop and mobile - this is for a major company.

Yesterday there was a technical hitch that was his employer's end. He had to spend four hours using our home phone to call a call centre, located God knows where and what rate.

I don't find running the heating hugely more expensive tbh, my partner has always worked from home and when he first moved in I was worried but reality is not too bad.

You could always get an electric heater for your office and only run the central heating in the morning and evening as you would before.

The other costs are really minimal and tbh sound quite petty, especially when most people have a huge quality of life bonus working from home. Getting the time back from the commute, more relaxed working environment etc.

I am a trustee of a small(ish) charity with about 20 staff and 80 volunteers. A few people that need to (either because of their role or their home set-up) are working in the offices. We had been encouraging more people to return until last week.

Most of the staff and volunteers are very sensible but occasionally there is a person we need to talk to about expenses.

We have just migrated everybody to office 365 and begged low spec laptops from local companies for people that didn't have suitable kit of their own. The Operations manager has been talking to employees to make sure they have a suitable workstation set-up (i.e. a desk and suitable chair).

At the moment we are paying a few people's "daytime phone call packages" if they are able to prove that this wasn't a thing they had pre-lockdown.

I have to say that we haven't really used much more gas and electricity in lockdown so far. This is with an extra two people with multiple PCs and monitors.

Winter fuel costs will need looking at, but we will start by encouraging employees to claim through their tax return.

Maybe my views are clouded by having a 10% paycut on lockdown because the sales pipeline was looking vulnerable.

@middleager

My husband has to use his own old laptop and mobile - this is for a major company.

Yesterday there was a technical hitch that was his employer's end. He had to spend four hours using our home phone to call a call centre, located God knows where and what rate.

He can claim for that

Yes my employer is paying £25 per month and has shipped any office equipment needed directly to your home including desks and chairs.