Only 20 per cent of employees working from home are claiming relevant expenses, according to a newly published data.
If an employer needs staff to work from home, it often may mean a marginal increase in household costs such as mobile data, heating, metered water bills, home contents insurance, business calls or broadband connections.
Working from home also means that, even if it’s just for part of the week, they are eligible to claim a rate of £6 a week from HMRC, something that can be back-dated to the date it began. This means employers can either pay staff an extra £6 a week tax-free or the employees can ask for the amount to be deducted from their taxable income.
Many employees have been working from home since March so this could now be a significant amount, according to the Global expenses app, ExpenseOnDemand.
On top of this additional available income, many employees are saving substantial costs by removing commuting costs such as annual train fees and paying for coffees and lunches. For many, this has also meant an improvement in the work-life balance with many employees being able to spend more time with family.
The new data also revealed that overall business claims have reduced by more than a fifth for more than 45 per cent of all businesses with the other businesses claiming they have reduced by at least 15 per cent, meaning businesses saving millions on business expense costs during this difficult year.
Sunil Nigam, Founder at ExpenseOnDemand, said: “As the real economic impact of the pandemic takes effect, many individuals are seeing reductions in pay as financial leaders manage in the short term to try to survive this difficult year. It is therefore amazing to see that only 20 per cent of employees are benefitting from the tax-free saving of £312 a year.”