Working from home stuck around more in Scotland than other parts of the UK even as Covid-19 restrictions eased, figures show. New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests that the number of people working from home between January and March this year had more than doubled compared to before the pandemic.
Between October and December 2019 there were 4.7 million people working from home across the UK, the ONS said. In the first three months of this year, 9.9 million people used their homes as workplaces.
There was a lot of variation across different parts of the country too. In Scotland homeworking increased nearly 204% as more than half a million more people were working from home, in Northern Ireland, however, the rise was 56%.
The figures reflect the major shift in UK working patterns during the pandemic. In a bid to stop the spread of Covid-19, the UK Government imposed a lockdown in the spring of 2020.
As a result, those who could were forced to work from their homes. Others who were considered key workers were able to go to work while those non-key workers who could not work from home were given UK Government furlough payments.
Recent analysis from the ONS suggests that increased homeworking is likely to stick around in some form even after the pandemic.
The UK Government is no longer asking employees to work from home where they can, yet in February eight in 10 workers who did their jobs from home during the pandemic said they plan to continue doing some work from home.
Just over four in 10 (42%) said they plan to work from home most of the time.
In England as a whole, 31% of people were working from home, with 30.4% in Wales and 30.2% in Scotland.
In Northern Ireland, just 16.4% of people were working from home.
Tax relief if you work from home
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have changed the rules on claiming the nandy tax rebate for those working from home.
However, you may be able to claim tax relief for additional household costs if you have to work at home for all or part of the week.
Who can claim tax relief
You can claim tax relief if you have to work from home, for example because:
- your job requires you to live far away from your office
- your employer does not have an office
Who cannot claim tax relief
You cannot claim tax relief if you choose to work from home.
This includes if:
- your employment contract lets you work from home some or all of the time
- you work from home because of COVID-19
- your employer has an office, but you cannot go there sometimes because it’s full
What you can claim for
You can only claim for things to do with your work, such as:
- business phone calls
- gas and electricity for your work area
You cannot claim for things that you use for both private and business use, such as rent or broadband access.
How much you can claim
You can either claim tax relief on:
- £6 a week from 6 April 2020 (for previous tax years the rate is £4 a week) - you will not need to keep evidence of your extra costs
- the exact amount of extra costs you’ve incurred above the weekly amount - you’ll need evidence such as receipts, bills or contracts
You will get tax relief based on the rate at which you pay tax.
Find out more about claiming tax relief while working from home on the GOV.UK website, here.
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