Homeworking - commuting to local office?

[Burrow01]

Countdown said:

Thanks all

That was broadly my understanding as well. We'll just have to officially NOT make them homeworkers.

So you are happy to save £1m in rent, but not pay out a bit for peoples travel expenses?

[Countdown]

Burrow01 said:

Countdown said:

Thanks all

That was broadly my understanding as well. We'll just have to officially NOT make them homeworkers.

So you are happy to save £1m in rent, but not pay out a bit for peoples travel expenses?

We're happy to save £1m in rent and try to avoid incurring any costs we don't need to.

Is that a bad thing? Bear in mind the Employees will be saving somewhere between £2k and £7k in commuting costs so we think it works for both of us.

[Countdown]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Didn't see this

Yes that's what we're doing / have done. What we are trying to avoid is a situation where staff believe they are contractually homeworkers and therefore entitled to claim costs for travelling to their current office. So we are just going to say you can WFH but you're not formally Homeworkers.

[Burrow01]

Countdown said:

Burrow01 said:

Countdown said:

Thanks all

That was broadly my understanding as well. We'll just have to officially NOT make them homeworkers.

So you are happy to save £1m in rent, but not pay out a bit for peoples travel expenses?

We're happy to save £1m in rent and try to avoid incurring any costs we don't need to.

Is that a bad thing? Bear in mind the Employees will be saving somewhere between £2k and £7k in commuting costs so we think it works for both of us.

Fair enough, but it does seem to be a bit penny pinching, what would be the costs for a years expenses?

[Countdown]

Burrow01 said:

Fair enough, but it does seem to be a bit penny pinching, what would be the costs for a years expenses?

It's hard to say - let's say 10% of the staff turned up on any particular day and claimed £10 travel costs. So that would be 20 x £10 x 220 days per annum = £44,000. Then you have the 10 other regional offices where staff would argue that if London staff get home to office expenses it, they should get it as well. Then, on top of that, if HMRC decide it's a taxable benefit you would need to add on 20%/40% depending on what peoples' marginal tax rate is.

All in all, it would just be a PITA so, given that staff who WFH even 1 or 2 days per week will be better off, and nobody should be worse off , I think we'll just be better off having a policy that states nobody can claim.

[Burrow01]

Countdown said:

Burrow01 said:

Fair enough, but it does seem to be a bit penny pinching, what would be the costs for a years expenses?

It's hard to say - let's say 10% of the staff turned up on any particular day and claimed £10 travel costs. So that would be 20 x £10 x 220 days per annum = £44,000. Then you have the 10 other regional offices where staff would argue that if London staff get home to office expenses it, they should get it as well. Then, on top of that, if HMRC decide it's a taxable benefit you would need to add on 20%/40% depending on what peoples' marginal tax rate is.

All in all, it would just be a PITA so, given that staff who WFH even 1 or 2 days per week will be better off, and nobody should be worse off , I think we'll just be better off having a policy that states nobody can claim.

To be honest if its a £10 journey for the person to come into the office, and they are saving a fair bit on WFH, thats probably fair.

On the other hand if you are also closing / reducing the rent on the regional offices, the savings will be more than 1M per year:-)

I think it does depend on how much the staff are paying for the commute on the non WFH days, and also if the office travel is compulsory or not