Does anyone have a home working policy or checklist for home working that they would care to share with me. My organisation permit home working but I am concerned that formal policy of checks in place. Thanks Martin

Hope this is of some help, home working has quite a few implications, so step carefully Accommodation Access Furniture Telephones Post Utilities Mortgage and home insurance How to make claims Furniture requirement process map (Word 44kb) Subsidiary items process map (Word 44kb) Accommodation If you are a designated home worker or home-based but mobile worker you must have a suitable working environment which meets the requirements in the homeworker risk assessment (Word 167kb). HMRC will not fund alterations to your home, but will consider adjustments required under the Disability Discrimination Act. Access You must allow access to your home for: suppliers to carry out maintenance on equipment Managers (or trained risk assessors) to complete a Health and Safety risk assessment You can allow access to your home for managers to carry out other meetings (e.g. Appraisal) or if you prefer meetings can take place at an HMRC office. If you need to carry out any other face to face meetings with any other individuals as part of your work, you should do so at an office or customer premises, not at your home. Furniture we will provide you with standard furniture if you are a designated homeworker or homebased but mobile worker, and this will include a: Desk Chair Lockable cabinet Where appropriate we will provide: Shredder – cross cut Desk Lamp Fire extinguisher Smoke Detector Surge protected extension leads If you are an office based but mobile worker you will not usually need any furniture at home. Managers should consider, on a case by case basis, if there are any items of furniture necessary to enable you to carry out your duties and to fulfil health and safety/Data Security obligations Furniture provided by us remains the property of ours and you have a duty of care to prevent damage. HMRC will meet any costs for general wear and tear and accidental damage. If you wish to use your own furniture you can do so provided it meets the required Health and Safety standard. If your remote and mobile working arrangement ends, your manager will arrange for the collection of any furniture provided by us. If you wish to purchase furniture which is sympathetic to your home we will make a contribution towards the cost. However you will not be able to purchase your own chair - we will provide a standard chair unless a specialist chair is necessary as prescribed by a DSE assessor or specialist assessment. All furniture must meet Health and Safety Standards Telephones Depending upon the needs of the business, we will provide you with a separate business line, mobile phone or Blackberry. Telephone numbers must not be given out for customers to contact you direct. Post Wherever possible information should be transmitted via e-mail or using shared drives. When this is not possible your manager should make arrangements for the secure transit of post. Unopened post should first be opened by a nominated person or manager in an Office before forwarding it to you. You can return post to us using pre-paid envelopes. Remember to use the appropriate security marking when posting documents to or from the office and always send documents in line with their protective marking. There are additional requirements for confidential documents.. Utilities If you are a designated homeworker you will be able to claim an annual allowance of £156 to cover any additional costs such as heating and lighting. There is no tax and NIC liability for this expense and it is not pro rata for those working part time. If you have a homeworking arrangement which was set up as a reasonable adjustment under the Disability Discrimination Act, or agreed following an application under the Flexible Working Regulations you may be able to claim the utilities allowance even though your working pattern was not established under the Remote and Mobile Working policy. To be eligible, your working arrangement must equate to the designated homeworker category i.e. You would need to work almost exclusively at home. Mortgage and Home Insurance Before commencing homeworking you must: Check that the mortgage/tenancy agreement doesn’t prevent homeworking Notify lender or landlord before starting to homework Inform the insurance company to avoid invalidating the home insurance policy we will fund any unavoidable additional insurance costs incurred.