Correct wording for contract to work at home

[Crystalmazes]

Been offered a job to work from home (england address).

I was told if I have to ever come to office (based in London) I will be paid for it.

In the contract it says the following:
Your normal place of work will be your home address.
We may change your normal place of work to any other location within the UK on giving you reasonable advance notice.
The company shall reimburse all reasonable expenses wholly, properly and necessarily incurred by you in the course of your employment.

Is this sufficient to cover wfh contract and having expenses paid if I go into London. For example, food and travel.

Manchester to london

Price compare the extra tickets vs overnight.

There should be a travel and overnight policy which would give allowances where relevant.

I live 3 hours from my office, I had to pay for my own petrol and accommodation when I went in for 2 days mandatory training and all my own meals! I didn't expect anything else.

If you are not being paid London weighting then they should cover your travel and accommodation.

I used to do London to Manchester trips every few months. I could claim travel, accommodation and 3 meals a day! My contract was to the office in London. It often worked out cheaper if I caught an afternoon train ad stayed the night, than travelling at peak hour. Likely not the same the other way though with London hotel prices.

Current job, contracted home worker. There is nothing about it changing your normal work place, but can check the exact wording tomorrow. I'd ask for that sentence to be removed.
Rarely, I'll attend a conference or away day. Travel is paid, food is provided and if needed, a hotel. If I'm staying overnight, I can claim breakfast and dinner if not provided.

You need to see a copy of the travel and expenses policy. I am a home worker and in my contract it has my place of work listed as 'home' and then a line much like the one you have provided.

In the travel and expenses policy it stipulates that any time you are required to work anywhere except your contracted location you will get food, travel and accommodation paid for in accordance with the pollcy. There are different thresholds based on how far away the location is from contracted place of work, how long you will be travelling, what form of travel will be necessary and so on.

Eg

I get a bigger budget for hotels in London or New York than in Coventry or Kansas.
I get breakfast, lunch and dinner if I need to stay overnight, but only lunch if my day including travel will not exceed 8 hrs
I can fly business class if the flight is over 8hrs long
I can get a car service/taxi for travel to airport if sharing with a colleague or it's the cheapest option, otherwise expected to use train.

But this is all part of the policy rather than contract which means it can be changed by the company at will.

Yes my home is technically my workplace on my contract. I am often out and about though so claim for lunch / mileage. It’s actually quite good as I also get paid for travel time. I used to have a lengthy commute. I do about a third of my hours from home and obviously paying for electric / heating costs so swings and roundabouts.

So 3 hrs by train, assuming you'd do something like Manchester -> Sheffield, Sheffield -> London

That would be an overnight stay according to our policy, any travel where the journey is over 2 hrs each way justifies a hotel as it's not considered reasonable to expect in excess of 4 hours commute in a day on top of the meeting/event for work purposes.

you need to just ask the company directly about what expenses will be covered or asked to be pointed towards a policy as then you will have a record and just every company does something different, I’ve worked for companies where hotel, travel and a food stipend would be provided and others where it wouldn’t.

So 3 hrs by train, assuming you'd do something like Manchester -> Sheffield, Sheffield -> London

Definitely not. Unless you wanted to almost double your journey.

You can get a direct train from Manchester to Euston at 7am that only stops once, at Stockport, and takes about two at a half hours, though it costs a fortune. After that the Avantis are still fairly regular but not as quick.

I regularly do that journey there and back in a day, but if I was there for two days in a row it would be much easier - and cheaper - to stay overnight.

Gets paid too if I stay over. breakfast and dinner included. However this is usually only needed once a month. I travel to sites 1-2 hours from where I live.

You will probably get lunch included yes as you’re travelling to somewhere other than your regular place of work. We have £13 for a 10hr day, £34 ish if staying overnight. You’re a contractual home worker if your contract states your place of work is your home address. So all expenses should be paid when you travel.

Just ask to see the policy

So HMRC would see us as home workers due to contract wording and therefore would be fine?

Had an update - They say they do reimburse via the policy.

I

I have, they won't think it is weird request?

Do you not get an allowance?

Similar to others our policy is if you need to go to an office that is not your 'home' office (so that could be your actual home or your agreed office) you would get to claim lunch expenses, breakfast if you need to leave the house before a certain time (think it's 06.30) and dinner if you are home after a certain time, or if you are staying overnight. Travel and accommodation would always be paid

You have zero clue @NewHeaven I WFH and get travel and food expensed if I go to the office, this sometimes includes breakfast too if I fancy it

Grabbing a sandwich from your fridge =/= buying a lunch on the road. Not disagreeing that reimbursement is unlikely, I’m just pointing out the equivalency fallacy.

I don’t get a work from home allowance. I do claim tax relief from Hmrc that’s an exciting £1.20 a week!