Working from home expenses

Dr_Crypto

Sounds like the government should abolish it. It must cost the government more than that to process the claim and nobody really needs £1.20 a week. 

jayzor

Blimey £1.20 a week!!!? I would be embarrassed to claim it in all honesty, but each to their own! As Dr_Crypto said, it should be abolished.

diggingdude

k12479 said:

diggingdude said:

How much is the company saving on gas electric, water etc

How much additional expense have they incurred in buying laptops, increasing video call capacity and VPNs, higher mobile phone bills...?

That is part and parcel of running a business.  If you don't want to shoulder the costs then let the employee go.  The employee is hired by the business to do a job, if their contract says work from home and shoulder the costs fine. Most don't though because we live in an old fashioned world where employers want bums on seats.  Look at it the other way, when weather has been bad and people couldn't get into work they usually had their pay docked because they were not where they were contracted to be

Jeremy535897

jayzor said:

Blimey £1.20 a week!!!? I would be embarrassed to claim it in all honesty, but each to their own! As Dr_Crypto said, it should be abolished.

Hardly. The government gave it a massive increase of 50% on 6 April 2020, from 80p a week.

mattyprice4004

diggingdude said:

mattyprice4004 said:

How much are you saving in commuting costs? 

It really annoys me when people say that. ThispThis home is not the office. How much is the company saving on gas electric, water etc

I’m sorry that asking relevant questions with regards to expenses annoys you so much - goodness knows how you handle something actually worth being annoyed about!  

k12479

diggingdude said:

k12479 said:

diggingdude said:

How much is the company saving on gas electric, water etc

How much additional expense have they incurred in buying laptops, increasing video call capacity and VPNs, higher mobile phone bills...?

That is part and parcel of running a business.  If you don't want to shoulder the costs then let the employee go.  The employee is hired by the business to do a job, if their contract says work from home and shoulder the costs fine. Most don't though because we live in an old fashioned world where employers want bums on seats.  Look at it the other way, when weather has been bad and people couldn't get into work they usually had their pay docked because they were not where they were contracted to be

"I am normally office based but have been working full time at home..." - It is obvious that this post, and the majority of similar enquiries recently made, are from people who are normally office based. You going on about what savings employers have made are meaningless without considering the increased costs that have also been incurred. For employees who are normally home-based, the savings in gas, water and electricity are pretty insignificant if retaining the same size office, even if it allows downsizing the office the savings typically won't be proportional 1:1.

silvercar

I would think that working from home you have made savings. Other than the costs of commuting, you will have been working in whatever clothes you choose, spending less on looking presentable, not be contributing to the kitty for drinks etc, less likely to be having birthday drinks/ buying birthday cards or presents. That isn't even considering the costs of occasional drinks on the way home.

Jeremy535897

mattyprice4004 said:

diggingdude said:

mattyprice4004 said:

How much are you saving in commuting costs? 

It really annoys me when people say that. ThispThis home is not the office. How much is the company saving on gas electric, water etc

I’m sorry that asking relevant questions with regards to expenses annoys you so much - goodness knows how you handle something actually worth being annoyed about!  

As I pointed out earlier, the answer to the question raised does not depend on whether either the employer or the employee, or both, are saving anything, so I don't think the question was relevant, but neither was the response.

Novice_investor101

I am working from home & not saving anything on commuting or food etc as I walked to work & took my own lunch. I also never went for after work drunks &we still do the birthday kitty electronically. 

I won’t be bothering claiming the £1.20 tax relief but my employer is looking at paying the £6pw. 

I am now running a laptop & two screens & charging a mobile phone everyday, whilst also cooking more at lunch time. I wear the same clothes at home or at work. I’m happy to just over those costs, but I am genuine concerned about heating costs in the winter. I can’t afford to run the central heating all day, 7 days a week. I will soon be going back to the office for 3 days a week, which will mitigate it, but a lot of people may be in the same position (I live alone, so heating is off from 7am to 5pm everyday). 

ToxicWomble

However you commute normally, I would also factor in the time saving from not having a commute and the flexibility of being able to start work when I am ready rather than at a pre-prescribed time.
I save an hour a day on commuting with which I can now do whatever I want with.