Meal allowance when working away

[Workingfornothing]

Can anyone please advise. I’ve looked but can’t make much sense. Is there a legal requirement for a company to provide you with meal expenses when working away? Currently my partner sometimes works away and sometimes works local. When he’s local he has breakfast at home, takes a packed lunch, and a hot drink in a flask and water/juice, then obviously has evening meal at home. When he works away his employer pays for his hotel, and £20 for an evening meal. That’s it. If the evening meal is under £20 he gets that amount back only. If it’s over £20 he only gets £20. Every time he works away he’s using his own money as he has to buy his meals and drinks (excluding £20) So it’s costing him, and other employees, to do their job. I just can’t see how this is fair. So, is there any legislation to say meals must be provided by the employer?

There’s nothing saying you have to eat in a restaurant. My DH works away a lot (including in London) and he often goes to a supermarket and uses his allowance to buy sandwiches, salads, etc - stuff he can take back to his hotel room, and which can be used for more than just one meal.

Hahah not at all. He wants to be able to eat 3 meals a day as a manual worker who needs calories, without it having to cost him for the pleasure. After all, he doesn’t choose to work away, he gets sent. Again, my point is how unfair we feel it is that the company expects employees to work away, gives only a small amount for 1 meal per day, it shouldn’t cost employees their own money to work in a different part of the country. Would you work half a day for no wages? Thats what this equates to 🤷‍♀️ working for nothing.

Is he in the same place all the time? When I used to work away we weren’t allowed any alcohol and had a maximum evening budget of £20 ( 20 years ago). We got round that by going to local independent Chinese/Indian and explaining our dilemma. A special was inevitably provided that included a drink and a bill with either a total only in a none English language. If he went to a local none chain pub I’m sure they could manage a cooked meal and a sandwich for the next day for £20.

You're quite right, that's all I can claim back, so the cycle begins, it's all my client pays me so that's the allowance to them, although I honestly don't enforce it. However I don't believe there is actually anything for employees so we don't have to pay this.
They would technically mean if they're away for a week or at home either way they would pay for their food so why should anyone subside them, we do because we recognise being away from home is completely different but

The £20 is to cover the difference in cost between a home cooked meal (which isn’t free, especially not for a grown man) and the cost of eating out. It is not supposed to cover the full cost of the food he eats in a day.

I’m not saying it’s not stingy, but that’s the rationale.

The hotel doesn’t have a fridge. It’s basic. There isn’t a kitchettte or anything.
he does heavy manual work. The man needs food. Proper meals not a pot of instant porridge for breakfast and a ham sandwich for lunch

I don’t think I understand your point, his food isn’t free at home so he is just transferring his food shop from home to away. He can go to a supermarket while away just the same as he can here and buy cereal, milk, bread, tins of tuna to make a bulk of sandwiches for a packed lunch, a 6 pack of crisps, bag of apples etc to last him just like he would at home.

He still pays for his food at home, all that should be happening is that he is now buying his food away. He doesn’t have to eat out every meal of every day he is away- that’s expensive.

Presumably it costs money for him to eat 3 meals a day when he’s not on a work trip? Especially as he’s a grown man with an active job.

It sounds like he was expecting his total food cost could be covered so that he profits from a work trip, so to speak. Understandable as that’s been my experience of the corporate world (I never spend anywhere near my allowance on work trips), but it’s not something he can or should kick up a fuss about.

He’d have to pay for his own lunch if he wasn’t working away anyway.

He might not choose where he’s sent, but he chose this kind of job.

@Workingfornothing quite a few years ago, my kids and I were away for a few days while my kids completed a sports training camp. We took our electric cool box and took food with us and made our own breakfast and packed lunches. Buying everything out soon adds up. And it definitely costs more than eating breakfast at home and bring a packed lunch. Yes it does seem unfair as he does end up out of picket to work away.

Half a day for no wages? Are you saying he spends £20 plus 4 hours’ wages on food on a work trip? Even on minimum wage, that’s upwards of £70 on food. Where on earth is he eating?!

As PP said, he could easily spend his allowance in a supermarket to make it go further. Plenty of supermarkets in London.

We get £25 for an overnight stay to cover breakfast lunch and dinner. If I was at home I wouldn't be spending zero to feed myself so the money I'm not spending at home also goes towards feeding me when I'm away for work

So you expect a manual worker to spend part of the days he’s allocated to do timebound work and likely tired already from the travel there to go shopping and make up a mass of sandwiches to last him through breakfast, lunch and dinner! Re time and logistics, there’s no chopping boards, plates and cutlery or fridge in the basic rooms he’s put in either. Also, his company won’t pay for a miscellaneous grocery shopping list as OP said it’s a single dinner receipt only.

Yes but that evening meal at home doesnt appear from nowhere - he has paid for that food.

So when he is eating away from home you are saving money on groceries.

Yeah i know someone who does construction. He eats sandwiches.

Where is he in London that he's more than twenty minutes from a Spoons? There are 109 of the things.

And if he's near a Spoons, he'll be near a supermarket.

Can he pay to add breakfast on to his room deal? Not ideal, but he can then eat a full breakfast and take bread etc. to make sandwiches?

If he was at home he would also have to prepare meals for himself😂

and I never said his company would pay the receipt, they don’t have to- it’s the same shit he’d pay for if he was at home!

His food at home isn’t free & he has to prepare it there too!

I don’t think the OP understands this very, very basic point.

As for the single receipt thing, he can submit a receipt for a pizza or whatever then if he’s still hungry, top up with snacks from a supermarket with the money he’s saving by not eating at home. Simple.

It is undoubtedly more expensive to eat away from home. The scale rate allowances acknowledge that. But it is entirely possible to eat decently for £15 in London (I work for a construction company). It’s actually harder when you are the middle of nowhere.

If he's working in London, I guarantee there is a weatherspoons within 20 minutes of his hotel.

I travel with work a lot and get £25 for a dinner and drink. I take a cool bag with me, with ice blocks in and fill it with what I would usually eat at home. So sandwiches, yoghurts, fruit, porridge sometimes a small bottle of milk, pastries, whatever we have in the house really. It works fine, and I fill my thermos using the kettle and tea bags in my premier inn. I refuse to be out of pocket for work, and this cool bag works out more cost effective.

Tell me this isn’t HS2 workers??
Ripping the UK off for £millions and screwing their workers?
£20 per day in London is a paltry amount and to scrimp on breakfast is mean. Is he in a union?

This is the first time I have seen 'of' used for 'have', but the other way around to the usual. Well done, OP!

Anyway, I've not had a role requiring food expenses for many years now, but when I did the allowance was £25 per day. We could spend it however we saw fit however and allowing for inflation that is a lot more than your DP is getting. I agree It's very low. Does he work away long enough to justify buying a loaf of bread and some non-refrigerated sandwich fillings?

I used to spend mine on non-perishable groceries for home, other than some crisps/sandwiches to eat for meals!

When I was cabin crew (abroad) we used to get cash allowance which was calculated on the average meal costs in the hotel for the duration of the layover.

UK was the lowest at about £45 for 24 hours. Some destinations I used to get £150 per day so would pack pot noodles and keep the cash.

£20 for an evening meal sounds about right.

The HMRC rates have been the same for years. Seeing the figures quoted here are the same that I was given when I was travelling in my job in 2013/2014! We all know how much things have gone up since then. Really seems like HMRC could update them.