Working from home

The Trust currently has an Agile Working policy (available on our intranet site) which includes information about homeworking.

The following documents are further temporary measures introduced to support the Trust’s response to the COVID-19 situation. Managers are asked to ensure that all staff working from home have completed the home working checklist below.  

Managers should review the Checklist and ensure any necessary actions are taken.  They should also ensure that arrangements are kept under review on a weekly basis.  A copy of the Checklist should be emailed to HR for central recording – E: nuth.filing.humanresources@nhs.net

The Top Tips document is something for managers and staff.  Managers should ensure staff have a copy/access to it and both managers and staff are asked to ensure homeworking arrangements observe the content.

Working from home guide

A guide has been produced for staff working from home which includes information on setting up a Trust laptop and guidance on video and phone conferencing. You can read the guide below.

For any members of staff who are working at home, please remain considerate of Information Governance Advice. NHS Digital has produced a useful summary on governance guidance – key information and tools

Do remember, all staff can access their emails at any time, on any work or personal PC, laptop or mobile device using the NHS net portal: https://portal.nhs.net

Our guidance has been produced to help ensure a consistent approach is adopted across the organisation and to help staff understand their responsibilities in this regard.

A guide has been produced to help staff run an MDT meeting through StarLeaf and can be downloaded below.

Tax relief on home expenses

Staff required to work from home for any length of time since 23 March 2020 can submit a claim for tax relief on their working from home expenses.

Required to work from home includes, for example, a period of at least one day where you worked from home as part of arrangements to facilitate safer working in the workplace by maintaining social distancing.

Working from home expenses include things to do with your work, for example, business telephone calls or the extra cost of gas and electricity for your work area at home.  You cannot claim for things that you use for both private and business use, for example, rent or broadband access.

Tax relief can be claimed on £6.00 per week for the whole of the tax year 2020/21 – 6 April 2020 to 5 April 2021.  It is based on the rate at which you pay tax.  For example, if you pay income tax at the basic rate of 20%, you can claim tax relief of £1.20 per week (i.e. 20% of £6.00).

Total tax reduction for year 2020/21 is up to £62.40 for a basic rate tax payer and up to £124.80 for a higher rate (40%) tax payer.

Any tax refunds/reductions are adjusted through an amendment to your tax code and received over the remainder of the tax year through your salary rather than as a cash payment.

Staff who do not usually complete a self-assessment tax return can make a claim using the following link to HMRC’s website:  https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home  

You will need to set up a government gateway account if you do not already have one.  Creating a government gateway ID usually takes above 10 minutes and it works best if you have your National Insurance number and a recent payslip, P60 or a valid UK passport to hand.  Follow the below link to setup an account https://www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account/sign-in/create-account

Staff who submit a self-assessment return should make the adjustment on their 2020/21 return.

Please note that the above tax relief provisions have only been agreed by Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs for the 2020/21 tax year. Staff are asked to ensure they fully understand the above and are encouraged to carry out their own research before taking any action.  Also, staff are responsible for ensuring they are eligible for tax relief as well as understanding changes to their tax code in any given year.