You’re looking at this in a glass-half-empty kind of a way OP. Think of the benefits you are accruing in later life – knackered knees, haemorrhoids, permanent helmet-hair / baldness, broken body and shattered nerves through fighting with cars… See? It’s not all bad 😉

interesting how effectively the “same” employer can have such different rules. I also work for “the public sector”, and the only reason we can claim mileage on our own private cars for some sort of client meeting is if there has been some sort of emergency, otherwise claims are not entertained, has to be pool, hire cars or taxis.

I have no idea why.

I cycle to office and collect pool car, or have a hire car delivered to the house if its a very early start

What if the meeting is only 5 miles from home? Do you have to pay back 5 miles worth of allowances?

I think you are missing the really important point here.

At what stage during all this cycling/driving/collecting pool cars etc is the OP going to be able to have his tea breaks ?

tea breaks – good point in olden days they’d have sent a catering van out to follow you to meeting with a tea urn, subsidised bourbons and a photocopy of a crossword to keep all things equal

edit

otherwise claims are not entertained, has to be pool, hire cars or taxis.

I have no idea why.

my guess would be that at some point employees had “essential car user allowances” and these were withdrawn

Ah yes Essential Car User Allowance.

I had a job in loal government once, that involved getting around pretty much all the sites, was out at meetings most days. No car user allowance. My manager had one, and her car sat in the carpark all day, every day, no exceptions. She got right stinky when I questioned this. So I started cycling to meetings (was much fitter then).

Anyways found out after I left that she was being paid less then me, (which kind of explained why she seemed to hate me instantly for no reason) so the Car User Allowance was being used to bump up her salary.

Only in local government !! NEVER work there.

I have to deduct from my claim, my home to work mileage. Therefore, when I take the car direct to a meeting, I always have to claim 10 miles less than what I have actually driven. The policy works on the assumption that everybody drives to work, so any business miles straight from home should automatically deduct commuting miles.

Seems a little harsh, no? Have tried challenging it but the policy is da policy…… Doesn’t really encourage biking, public transport, car sharing etc.

Its the real world.
I’ve always been told I can not claim for miles, from home to work.

Answer ?.
Always go to work first, then set out to your meeting.
😉

I once worked at a place that occasionally required me to go to another site. They wouldn’t let me use my own car and claim the mileage, instead they made me hire a car each time, at a much greater cost to them and inconvenience to me. Bizarre.

Out of curiosity what does the OP claim back per mile?

If you use your own car, HMRC allows 45p per mile for the 1st 10,000 miles per year and 25p thereafter. So if the employer lets the OP claim back say 25p per mile, the OP then would claim the difference between the two amounts in their tax return.

And by the same token if the employer pay 50p per mile the OP would then have a tax liability on the additional income.

i do find it hard to see the issue here every one has to travel to work and incours some expense in doing so. the Op has chosen a cheep efficient form of transport with financial (he saves on running costs of a car) and health benefits occasionally he for business reasons uses an alternative form of transort to commute and then uses that vehicle to work he is reimbursed as are his collegues for the work expenses but not reimbursed for the loss of savings he was making over his collegues on the commute. Not discrimination and surely you knew you would have to work off site when you took the job and when you decided to commute by bike.

I commute by bike execpt when i need a car when i drive and incour millage and parking that i could never conceive an employer would reimburse me for. How i chose to get to work is my business and my responsibility.

Don’t start me on folk who expect to get paid when they can’t make it to work because it has snowed and they have a long driveway. Thats discrimination over those that make it in that day !

Always go to work first, then set out to your meeting

At least on paper

i had this conversation with my boss when he asked me to go to a meeting at an office on the other side of town -at least 10 miles – with no warning and thus no time to cycle

said “can i get a taxi” – “what do you mean” – ” i cycled to work ” – “why dont you bring your van” – “costs me 6 quid a day to bring it ” – “so it costs everyone else to bring their cars too” – “costs me nothing to ride though and i enjoy it – you dont pay me to own a car so i am not obliged to bring a car to work” – cogs whirred for a bit and he saw it made sense !

LOL @ the OP, what a douche

okay, I’m not feeling much love or sympathy here for this one. Fair enough, it is always worth getting other opinions as sometimes your own view on things can become a bit black and white.

I just don’t like the fact that a policy assumes that every body drives to work.

Guess I’ll drop it now!

franksinatra – Member

I just don’t like the fact that a policy assumes that every body drives to work.

But that’s the point your comment above is totally irrelevant. How you choose to get to work under normal circumstances has no bearing on the policy and is not discriminating against you in any way.

Regardless of *how* you get to work, there’s a pool car available for you to use.

What about the people who walk? Or catch the bus? Or get a lift of someone?

No different to you on a bike…

OP’s expenses rules are exacly the same as mine. I sometimes cycle from home directly to a meeting at another site, but I can’t claim mileage for that. I can however claim mileage for travelling from that site back to my office.

I have been in the position of having to travel to off site meetings for many years with various companies. The rule has always been the same. You claim the mileage from your normal place of work and back. This is not a company rule but HMRC.

Nope its not discrimination, but it is an additional expense.

I walk 2 or 3 days a week (6 miles each way) but when I need to go out I have to take my car (hopefully tis coincides with when its raining…).

If I leave from (or finish at) home (as I did this morning) I have to work out what the distance would’ve been if I’d left from the office. I can only claim the lesser amount (i.e. if its less from home than from the office or if its less from office). I’m also public sector.

I get a massive ~£7 a month (essential car users allowance) and only 40p/mile.

In private practice it was you could only claim what the mileage from office was. I had a couple of contracts where the site was basically on my door step. So I got to claim the mileage back to the office which I would have been doing anyways…

Swings and roundabouts sometimes…

Regardless of *how* you get to work, there’s a pool car available for you to use.

What about the people who walk? Or catch the bus? Or get a lift of someone?

If you read back you will see that the pool car doesn’t have the range to get to some of my meetings.

I may have titled this thread badly but I did say before that this is equally unfair to those who car share, get public transport etc.

b*stards! i suppose they’ll be cutting your pension next… where will it end eh?

I think you’ve missed something Frank.

Your home to work mileage is zero. Because zero is the amount of driving you do to get to work. (Although 10 miles is the amount of cycling you do).

Just start filling in your expense claim that way.

If you want to feel really irked, use a motorcycle. Still pay the same for petrol, tyres wear faster and cost more than a car, tax is marginally cheaper, insurance for business use is higher…
HMRC guidelines for cars- 45p per mile
For motorcycles- 24p per mile…

I am in the same position regarding home to work mileage, meh, just suck it up.

I just don’t like the fact that a policy assumes that every body drives to work.

No it doesn’t, it assumes that everybody has to get to work somehow. How you choose to travel is up to you, but whether you’re going to a meeting or to your normal place of work you’re still having to cover this mileage, just like everyone else. There’s no discrimination here whatsoever. How do you think those who live 30 miles from work feel? If they want to claim any mileage they’d have to be travelling over 30 miles to their meeting and still only claim mileage at the same rate a you who has benefitted from living relatively close to work. Get a grip and think yourself lucky to be in a job that pays any mileage at all.

The HMRC don’t want employees to lose out when they doing something for their employer but sometimes their rules don’t always work and some people will lose out…

In 2007 I had a company car and I paid my own fuel and then claimed back the mileage based on the HMRC advisory rates. My company paid the advisory rates and not a penny more. At the time I had a car with a 1998cc engine. The advisory banding was from 1400cc to 2000cc and the pence per mile you could claim for that banding was 11p. Unfortunately the fuel cost was 13p per mile, so every time I drove the car for business it would cost me! 2p per mile might not seem a lot but I was driving nearly 1000 miles per week. So just doing what I was paid to do, was costing me nearly £80 per month!!. When I complained to HR that they should pay me more than the advisory rate, I was told that I should have ordered a smaller engined and/or a most efficient car!

FWIW – if the engine size had been 2001cc, I would have got 16p per mile.

Some you win, some you lose!

franksinatra – Member
okay, I’m not feeling much love or sympathy here for this one

I’m with you.
Your colleauges, who usually drive to work, are paid for the all extra expense they incur in driving to a meeting.
You, who usually ride to work, are not being paid for all of the extra expense you incur when driving to a meeting.
Try Big John’s approach.

I lose out on my business mileage too – my car is more thirsty than the HMRC rates.

However, because I get a car allowance I get paid commuting mileage, albeit taxable. This also means that I get paid 20p per mile to ride my bike to the office!