I've not heard of anyone offering any kind of allowance for home working.

Moreover, I would encourage you to talk about it in terms of remote working rather than home working, because not everyone wants to or can work from home, but with the growth of co-working spaces and the general ubiquity of coffee shops, most white collar workers can work remotely.

I would have thought it's those attending a workplace that are in need of an allowance, even more so now. Don't forget to take into account the savings that remote workers make in terms of their travelling costs...

Welcome to the Community, Lorna.

Could you clarify.. do you mean allowances for the purchase of equipment, etc... and what kind of "legacy homeworking allowances" do you currently have?

Hi Lorna,

I have seen quite a few variations in clients, one replaced their car and London weighting allowances with homeworking allowances to ensure adequate desks, seating, and equipment. Others offer financial help with broadband services or upgrades, peripherals like printers, shredders, lockable filing cabinet, secure disposal services and security tech like encrypted external hard drives in place of secure network folders.

There are also clients who have upgraded their employers insurances, from cyber to health and wellbeing. Benefits have taken on a shift too, with childcare assistance and gym or fitness memberships still important considerations, along with new offers like virtual DSE and Ergonomics consultations, counselling and EAP provisions that cover legal and financial advice.

Arguably the move to remote working is not without cost - whilst season tickets and parking costs are no longer an issue, utilities at home will increase, as will risk to individuals and to the integrity and security of company systems and data.

The duty of care towards workers becomes harder to manage, and with people spread out rather than gathered together behind walls and firewalls, different risks and considerations will crop up.

A good business continuity plan and risk assessment exercises should flush out all the points to think about.

Hello, If you will need to check out the HMRC tax rules on allowances that can be claimed.

Under HMRC rules the max employees can claim is tax relief on up to £6 per week or £26 per month. This is also pro rata for part-time employees.
See link below:
www.gov.uk/.../working-at-home

Employees can claim direct which will change their tax code and they have to claim each tax year but can go back up to 4 years.

Essentially anything else is a benefit in kind which TYT incurs tax and TYT would need to justify and put through on P11d’s

There are other strict rules about equipment.

Hope this helps

Hi

 As Steve Bridger says the key is defining what (if anything) you are paying allowances for. You have an obligation, in reality, to provide all the necessary equipment and a safe remote working environment as you would do in a traditional environment. Therefore most / almost all organisations will provide the basics - desk, chair, screen, keyboard, mouse etc - either directly via central procurement or via a one off allowance. Your obligation doesn't end there as you still have to ensure they are working appropriately etc and the kit is appropriate particularly if they purchase themselves.

Not everyone has a spare office shaped room they can use for your work. therefore, you need to be creative and flexible in the kit offered with folding workstations and other solutions.

As has been said above most organisations have moved away from paying an allowance specifically to cover additional costs for home working for light, heat, broadband etc. (Broadband allowances came about largely when most homes didn't have/need broadband or download volumes were limited and it was a luxury item - now for most its an essential and many have unlimited usage) The argument (probably rightly) is that the net benefit to the employee is far greater than the outlay of costs for these things given what they are saving.

I wonder what pressure will come on this thought process when (a) people start getting hit for massive fuel bills and partly "blame" the extra costs of heating during the day to work from home and (b) people forget how much that train ticket into London cost or the daily Pret sandwich?

Perhaps one day we will have a whole group of workers who refuse to work remotely unless compensated but I don't think we are anywhere near there yet and most see the practical and financial benefits as being very attractive.

In reply to Alison:

Agreed Alison, on allowances, and I have seen this in some of the examples I have listed. However, the tax relief for home utilities can only be claimed if employees have no choice to work from home - if there is a choice of working at home or elsewhere, then this relief can't be claimed. It's worth thinking about, and some employers may just adjust overall salary as a result rather than select certain items that will draw tax and payroll complications.

Similarly, if an organisation is paying for equipment leases or service provision for staff at home, these remain within the company's purview, and wouldn't necessarily constitute BiK taxable items. Of course, payments in salary for such, or allowances for staff to purchase or lease these items and services in their own names, would attract BiK.

This is similar to working in an office where the company provides you with a desk, chair and laptop as tools to do your job, without you having to pay BiK on them; the same applies for provisions to remote workers, provided the equipment still belongs to the company, not the employee.

Policies and procedures all need to be reviewed and adapted for remote working, from IT to H&S, not just people management policies too; this is where business continuity and risk assessment planning helps, as it draws in more functions and departments than just HR.

In reply to Robey:

Thank you. Yes, remote working.

In reply to Steve Bridger:

Hi Steve,
Nice to meet you, and thank you for your welcome. I mean remote workers allowance to help with utility bills. The legacy payments are monthly allowances to cover broadband payments, which is no longer an issue as 99.9% of people have broadband access.
Lorna