Advanced options
Winter WFH days cost real heating money (all-day heating can run GBP 3-5 in the cold months): the GBP 2.50 default averages the year. If your employer requires home working under a formal arrangement, the GBP 6/week tax relief may apply: check gov.uk. The unpriced asymmetry: commute costs are post-tax money, so a GBP 1,500 saving is like a GBP 2,000+ pay rise.
What The WFH Savings Calculator Works Out
- Saved per home day: the commute cost plus lunch, coffees and incidentals, minus the extra heating and electricity of an occupied house. An office day commonly costs GBP 12 to GBP 18 all-in; a home day charges back pence in summer and GBP 3 to GBP 5 on cold-snap days, averaging near GBP 2.50.
- Saved per year: the daily saving multiplied by home days a week and working weeks a year. Three home days a week at the defaults banks around GBP 1,500.
- Plus the time: the commute hours avoided over the year, counted in eight-hour working days. Three home days on an hour's round trip restore roughly a working month of life a year.
- Round-trip commute time (advanced): override the one-hour assumption so the hours-returned figure matches your real journey.
- Equivalent pay rise before tax (advanced): the saving divided by (1 minus your tax and NI rate). Commuting is paid from post-tax income, so a GBP 1,500 saving is like a GBP 2,000 pay rise for a basic-rate taxpayer and more for a higher-rate one.
- Home-working tax relief (advanced): the GBP 6 a week flat rate at your income tax rate, worth GBP 62.40 a year at 20% and GBP 124.80 at 40%. It applies only where the employer formally requires home working, not where hybrid is a choice. Employers can also pay GBP 6 a week tax-free.
- Commute hours returned (advanced): the hours saved priced at whatever value you put on an hour of your own time; for many people this line outweighs the cash one.
- Winter heating extra (advanced): an additional cost per home day for about 20 winter weeks, deducted from the annual saving. Heating the room rather than the house, a timer matched to desk hours and an electric throw are the cheap mitigations.