Travel Expenses

Cheesecake21

I am a community nurse for NHS and we are now being asked to work from home with our laptops instead of going in to base. 
My base is in the next town, so for arguments sake is 5 miles away, so therefore, I am unable to claim for those 10 miles a day.
Now home is going to be my base, and I am going to be doing visits in my own town, so unlikely that I will exceed the said 10 miles, so will therefore not be able to claim any travel expenses for going to visit patients!!!
I feel that this is unfair and my boss has said if they change my base to home, I will have a different tax code and be taxed more ???
Can anyone guide me on this please 
Cheesecake

dinglebert

Why is it unfair?  You will be doing less miles.  You will also not have to travel to your work in your own time therefore you will have less work time each week.

Nick212010

This depends on what you’re Trust’s policy is on travel, but I find it highly unlikely (and blatantly unfair) that you’re not denied travel expenses.

You may not be paid to commute to your first location on any given day, and commute from your last location back home (unless they exceed your normal base of work - check your employment contract), but any travelling expenses occurred in between during working hours are normally claimable. Like I said, this depends on you’re Trust’s policy and your employment contract with said Trust.

oh_really

Cheesecake21 said:

I am a community nurse for NHS and we are now being asked to work from home with our laptops instead of going in to base. 
My base is in the next town, so for arguments sake is 5 miles away, so therefore, I am unable to claim for those 10 miles a day.
Now home is going to be my base, and I am going to be doing visits in my own town, so unlikely that I will exceed the said 10 miles, so will therefore not be able to claim any travel expenses for going to visit patients!!!
I feel that this is unfair and my boss has said if they change my base to home, I will have a different tax code and be taxed more ???
Can anyone guide me on this please 
Cheesecake

I have no idea what your manager thinks the implication is to tax coding here.

Been there/ done this in the past, withdrew use of personal car, this left manager with two choices, provide an NHS vehicle or come to arrangement over expenses. He though he was being smart by providing a vehicle thus removing the expense claim for the staff, The hire costs far outweighed any  perceived savings from expense claims. This lasted a few months then he realised the error of his ways. There was an expectation that we used personal vehicles however there was no contractual requirement for us to do so, the same situation for out of hours call outs, they had to send taxis. Do you have a contractual obligation to provide and use a vehicle or is it simply expected?

Remember, your use of personal car isn't for reimbursement of fuel, but for agreed mileage rates covering additional costs.
I suspect asking your steward to have a word in the managers ear may be fruitful.

AskAsk

If you work from home and there is no mileage allowance because you haven't travelled, then I can't see why you think this is unfair?

I assume you make a profit from the travel expense as they are generous.  But that is not the point of travel expense allowance.

oh_really

AskAsk said:

If you work from home and there is no mileage allowance because you haven't travelled, then I can't see why you think this is unfair? 

However they are travelling.

AskAsk said:

I assume you make a profit from the travel expense as they are generous.  But that is not the point of travel expense allowance.

The mileage allowance is an approved rate set independantely by the AA...

"Each year the Automobile Association Trust (AA) produces illustrative guides of motoring costs. These set out the elements of costs involved in running a car for a typical car owner using his or her vehicle for normal “domestic” purposes e.g. travel to and from work, shopping trips and holidays. The NHS Staff Council has used this as the source of its estimates of the costs of business mileage."

From the terms of service..."Employees who use their vehicles to make journeys in the performance of their duties e.g. to provide care in the patient’s home, will be reimbursed their motoring costs".

Marcon

Cheesecake21 said:

I am a community nurse for NHS and we are now being asked to work from home with our laptops instead of going in to base. 
My base is in the next town, so for arguments sake is 5 miles away, so therefore, I am unable to claim for those 10 miles a day.

Since you aren't travelling 5 miles there and 5 miles back, you don't need to claim for those 10 miles. Why is that an issue?

unforeseen

More to the point why were you claiming for your daily travel to your base? That is standard commuting. You can claim from there to your patients but not commuting. 

Barny1979

A Community Nurse worrying about not making a bit of extra cash rather than the other perks of working from home. They say nursing is a vocation........

Barny1979

unforeseen said:

More to the point why were you claiming for your daily travel to your base? That is standard commuting. You can claim from there to your patients but not commuting. 

They weren't but presumably the mileage was greater than 10 miles to get to patient's home, so could claim anything above 10 miles, whereas from home, won't tick over the 10 miles, so won't be able to claim.

strawb_shortcake

Where I work we have our normal home to duty limit, in my case it's 16 miles so if we have business insurance we can't can't claim for the first 16 miles. Additionally, if we are travelling further afield to a meeting we have to deduct normal commute time before adding that days hours.