Travel expenses

nickwilks7

Hi all, just after a bit of advice/help please.

My girlfriend has just started a new job as a teaching assistant at a primary school through a teaching agency.
She's started at a school 10 miles away and told she would get 45p a mile, so she took the job.
She received her first payslip this week and there was no travel expenses on it.
When she phoned up the agency they said that they keep hold of this as 'tax relief'? Is this right?
The problem is, the position is only morning work, so once she's taken out petrol money from her wage she's basically working for £15 a day!
Her payslip was for 6 days so was about £160 and £5 tax and N.I.

Does this sound right? Even though they said she would 'receive' petrol money?

Thanks in advance

bevanuk

Expenses are normally paid on a monthly basis - when have the agency said she will receive them?
They charge their markup on top of her hourly wage, so no it doesn't sound right. I'd ask for a further explaination.

And she isn't working for £15 a day, she works a morning.

Notmyrealname

She won't receive 45p, it'll be applied as an expense to reduce her tax bill so in effect she'll see either 9p more in her take home pay compared to paying tax on the full amount or nothing depending on how much she earns that week.

Its a 20 mile round trip. At most it should cost no more than £4 a day in petrol for a lot of cars and around £2-£3 a day for most small cars.

nickwilks7

Sorry my mistake, it's 20 miles each way!
They've said she wont actually receive her travel expenses!
She's working approx. 3.5 hours per day at £7.25 p/h, which isn't alot once you take her petrol money (£10 per day) out of this!
Just doesn't seem right her not receiving her petrol money back, surely all that petrol money doesn't pay her tax, as she isn't doing many hours.

GotToChange

nickwilks7 wrote: »

Sorry my mistake, it's 20 miles each way!
They've said she wont actually receive her travel expenses!
She's working approx. 3.5 hours per day at £7.25 p/h, which isn't alot once you take her petrol money (£10 per day) out of this!
Just doesn't seem right her not receiving her petrol money back, surely all that petrol money doesn't pay her tax, as she isn't doing many hours.

Yikes - what car does she have?

nickwilks7

She's got a Volkswagen golf gti which isn't the best on fuel!

GotToChange

nickwilks7 wrote: »

She's got a Volkswagen golf gti which isn't the best on fuel!

hmmmm - there are ways to drive that reduce fuel consumption (not judging a golf driver btw ) ...
I drive a Passat that simply inhales fuel but think I could get a good few miles out of a tenner...
...seriously that is 200 miles a week (and she can probably merge other trips into her commute), that is not going to cost £50.




Or is my maths hopeless.

nickwilks7

So are the agency right then, she won't get any petrol money even though they said she will get 45p a mile?
£90 tax sounds alot if she's only doing about 18 hours a week!

nickwilks7

So is there nothing she can do?
Really don't understand how she gets nothing!

Sambucus_Nigra

She needs to read the small print. They probably told her should would get tax relief of 45p per mile, not that she would get 45p per mile.

And anyway - as it's her place of work, she probably won't get 45p per mile. You only get that for business mileage, not mileage in just getting to work.

magenta22

I think I know which agency you are speaking of and notmyrealname is correct as in you don't get it as expenses.

If she looks at her payslip she will see it all listed there, basically she will pay less in tax so by opting into the travel scheme she will have an increase in her take home pay.

I would suggest that she perhaps go in to the agency and ask them to go through it with her because it isn't all that clear if you don't know what you are looking for.

As for the amount of tax she is paying - what tax code is she on? If it's BR then she is paying basic rate and needs to get her correct tax code.