Expenses for working from home?

vostro123

Hi,

My job is office based but unfortunately our office building is out of action as it has been damaged. As a result I am having to work from home. Due to the time needed to redecorate, reinstall power etc my employer reckons I will need to work from home for at least a month. My employer cannot provide alternative office space.

I am conscious that my bills for heating/electricity will be considerably higher this month due to me being in my house all day. Online I found information (which I cannot post a link to as I am a new user to this site - argh!) which suggests a value of £4 per week.

Am I within my rights to claim expenses from my employer to the value of £4 per week for the period that I am working from home? Is it that simple?

Comms69

£4 a week is the tax relief. You can negotiate whatever you want with your employer.


- Presumably your commuting costs will be lower

vostro123

Comms69 wrote: »

£4 a week is the tax relief. You can negotiate whatever you want with your employer.


- Presumably your commuting costs will be lower

I see, thanks. So I can claim back tax to the value of £4 per week?

Commuting costs are unaffected unfortunately as I walk to work.

EDIT: is my employer legally obliged to pay me something?

Comms69

vostro123 wrote: »

I see, thanks. So I can claim back tax to the value of £4 per week?

Commuting costs are unaffected unfortunately as I walk to work.

EDIT: is my employer legally obliged to pay me something?

No. However you are not obliged to work from home either. (unless the contract has such a clause)


Depending on how long you've worked there of course.

getmore4less

In these situation I think scraping around for a few £ is counter productive most of the time.

If the employer is a taker, mean on everything, expecting a lot for nothing back then maybe consider it but in most cases you want to support the business so it remains viable and keep you employed.

Do you have a space you can use that would otherwise be unused while you are at work?
eg. I have a office/computer room at home, whenever I worked from home I used that, it would be unused when at work.

Is is the type of job that you an get home stuff done while working .
eg. in the office I would have breaks for teas and chat in the break room at home I load the dishwasher and washing machine... small jobs that would get done outside normal work hours freeing up my time.

Does working from home cause any other disruptions to your household?
if you don't have the space are you displacing someone like the partner/kids from space they normally use

Is working from home a norm for the company?
Longer term if this proves successful it may be an option to a more flexible working relationship

By being flexible while the company has this issue a decent employer will recognize that when you need something.

[Deleted User]

For £4 a week I wouldn't bother.

nicechap

Does your home insurance cover you for business activities? Do you pay domestic council tax?

Is raising the temporary issue worth it?

vostro123

getmore4less wrote: »

In these situation I think scraping around for a few £ is counter productive most of the time.

If the employer is a taker, mean on everything, expecting a lot for nothing back then maybe consider it but in most cases you want to support the business so it remains viable and keep you employed.

Do you have a space you can use that would otherwise be unused while you are at work?
eg. I have a office/computer room at home, whenever I worked from home I used that, it would be unused when at work.

Is is the type of job that you an get home stuff done while working .
eg. in the office I would have breaks for teas and chat in the break room at home I load the dishwasher and washing machine... small jobs that would get done outside normal work hours freeing up my time.

Does working from home cause any other disruptions to your household?
if you don't have the space are you displacing someone like the partner/kids from space they normally use

Is working from home a norm for the company?
Longer term if this proves successful it may be an option to a more flexible working relationship

By being flexible while the company has this issue a decent employer will recognize that when you need something.

nicechap wrote: »

Does your home insurance cover you for business activities? Do you pay domestic council tax?

Is raising the temporary issue worth it?

I don't have any office space. I have been provided with a laptop from my employer but otherwise I just sit at the kitchen table all day. I am able to work from home just as well as from the office (I don't have anyone to talk to during the day while working from home but my employer doesn't like us talking in the office so it's not really much different!). I'm leaving the company in a couple of months to start a new job elsewhere.

I'm not disturbing anyone by working from home - I'm just conscious that I'm causing the bills to be more expensive. I share bills with a couple of housemates and tbh I wouldn't be surprised if one of them complains about bills being higher because of me!

I don't have home insurance. I don't think my landlord's insurance allows business activities (though I may be wrong). I pay domestic council tax. I wasn't really given a choice about working from home. It's not in my contract but I have some major work which must be completed within the next month and no-one else in the company has the skills to take on the responsibility.

[Deleted User]

You could take the laptop to the library and work there, therefore no additions to the bills and no one to complain regarding this.

Carrot007

To be honest as someone that works from home most of the time (out of choice), the extra cost in being at home dwarfs the cost you would be paying in fuel for the car to get there. I would expect you to have an under 10 mile commute in a very efficiant vehicle to make it otherwise.

marcarm

Carrot007 wrote: »

To be honest as someone that works from home most of the time (out of choice), the extra cost in being at home dwarfs the cost you would be paying in fuel for the car to get there. I would expect you to have an under 10 mile commute in a very efficiant vehicle to make it otherwise.

Or a walk to work therefore no cost saving to be made on the commute?

I agree with the other posters, for the tax relief on £4 a week, over a month is simply not worth it.

Surely the electricity for a laptop won't be much, and it's getting milder now so just stick another jumper on if you don't want the heating on.

A quick google suggest a laptop costs about 5p to run per hour, so 5p X 8hr = 40p a day.

40p X 20 working days = £8 per month, so you are really not adding that much to the bills.

If you are that worried, just chuck an extra £10 in the bills pot for the month to cover the extra