This would need to be decided but presumably the university’s normal insurance arrangements would apply.

Who would answer telephone enquiries?

The smartphone provided as part of the LIW package would work on university 4-digit extension numbers; staff on LIW would be expected to be contactable in the normal way.

How would groups be identified for phasing in LIW?

“Groups” is probably the wrong word; “cohorts” would be better. BES managers would make the decision but there is no implication that all staff in a cohort would be from a particular area of the Faculty.

Staff need to be able to meet with students and colleagues on a confidential and private basis. How would this happen?

Bookable private meeting spaces would be provided.

How is LIW for teaching staff linked to the development of e-learning?

The e-learning tool set and environment is now very powerful and allows for synchronous online face-to-face activity as well as “traditional” e-learning activity. Staff will be supported in designing and delivering courses which make use of such tools.

What management issues have emerged from previous experience with LIW? Do managers fear not being able to have access to their staff?

There is no reason to suppose that staff on LIW arrangements are less accessible. Staff have a responsibility to make themselves accessible. In any case one of the locations at which people work will be the “office”.

Academic staff love their rooms and will fear losing their space. How do you convince staff who already work partly from home to join the scheme?

Firstly they will be better supported if they join the scheme. Secondly the formal recognition that LIW is a valid form of working will offer some protection to staff who do work from home. Thirdly providing offices to staff who use them only part of the time is unlikely to be sustainable in the future. Fourthly those who join the scheme will be informed volunteers.

Teleworkers: Reimbursed Expenses And Benefits For Employees Working At Home

Increasing numbers of employees are working wholly or partly at home. A recent report by The Work Foundation (”Time to go home: embracing the homeworking revolution” by Tim Dwelly and Yvonne Bennion) suggested that 2.2 million employees in the UK (about 7.4% of all employees) work at home at least one day a week using a telephone or computer. Around one million employees work mainly at home. The number of employees working at home is increasing by around 13% a year.

The great majority of these home workers are employees who are sometimes referred to as teleworkers; workers who rely on the use of computers and telecommunications to carry out office work at home. Government policy aims to support employers that seek to provide better work-life balance opportunities.

In the last few years a number of changes to legislation have been made to help employers support teleworkers and other employees who agree to work at home without incurring a tax charge or liability for NICs. This article looks at that legislation and also at tax relief for expenses incurred by teleworkers as a result of working at home.

Employer provided equipment

Employers can now provide all of the computing facilities, telecommunications links, office furniture and supplies that a teleworker needs to work at home, without a tax charge. This is achieved by:

Section 316 ITEPA 2003, which provides an exemption for provided furniture, equipment, supplies and services where the employer’s sole purpose in providing them is to enable the employee to perform the duties of the employment and any private use is not significant.
An article in Tax Bulletin 49 (”Schedule E benefits in kind - part business use and part private use”) provides further guidance, this exemption can extend to the provision of a telephone line in the employee’s home and to broadband Internet access in the circumstances described in EIM21615 in the Inland Revenue’s Employment Income Manual;
Section 320 ITEPA 2003, which permits a limited exemption for provided computer equipment up to the first £500 of cash equivalent. Where this limit is exceeded the exemption in Section 316 ITEPA 2003 can apply to the excess.

Where benefits are exempted from tax there is no liability for Class 1A NICs (Section 10(1)(a) SSCBA 1992).

Expense payments to the employee

New legislation in Section 316A ITEPA 2003 applies with effect from 6 April 2003 to prevent any tax charge where an employer makes payments to employees to reimburse the additional household expenses that they incur in working at home. There is further guidance on this at EIM01472. Such payments could already be made without a NICs liability arising.

Exempt payments can be made where there are arrangements between the employee and the employer under which the employee regularly works at home. This covers employers’ homeworking policies but will not cover employees who work at home informally and not by arrangement with the employer. So, for example, the new exemption will not apply to employees who simply take additional work home in the evenings.

The exemption applies to employees who do some or all of their work at home with the agreement of the employer instead of working on the employer’s premises. For example, the new exemption could apply to payments made to an employee who arranges to spend two days each week working at the office and the other three days working at home.

The additional expenses that the employer may reimburse are those connected with the day to day running of the employee’s home. This might include additional costs of heating and lighting the work area, or the metered cost of increased water use. There might also be increased charges for Internet access or telephone use. In some cases work at home may lead to an increase in household contents insurance or to a liability for business rates. It might be difficult for employers to calculate the exact amount of additional costs that an employee is incurring as a result of working at home. So we have published a guideline rate of £2 per week that can be paid to employees working regularly at home without the employer having to justify the amount paid or the employee having to keep any records to demonstrate the additional expenditure.

The £2 per week figure is not a maximum, and greater amounts can be paid where the employer provides evidence to justify them. There are two ways to do this. The employer can agree in advance with their Inland Revenue office on a scale rate payment that is calculated to do no more than reimburse the average additional costs that the employees are meeting while working at home. It may be useful to agree that the scale rate payment can be increased annually in line with inflation. If the employer has agreed a scale rate payment based on reasonable estimates of additional household costs derived from records of costs kept by employees it is not necessary for employees to keep subsequent evidence of costs incurred.

Alternatively, an employer may prefer to reimburse the actual additional costs incurred by each employee. In such cases we would expect the employer to keep records to show how the payments have been computed. In turn this will depend on evidence retained by the employee about the amount of additional costs.

The University’s insurance policy only covers University owned property so physical damage/theft etc to any kit not belonging to us would not be covered.

With regard to the liability cover..the obvious answer is that this would only apply if we were considered liable. The current LIW situation is managed by the University; in as much as we supply the kit and install it in staff’s LIW location, if anything untoward goes wrong for which we were considered to be blameworthy then the University would be covered on our combined liabilty policy. If anything set up by the employee subsequently goes wrong then it’s difficult to see how the institution could be liable.

University insurance cover in the LIW context it is still a relatively grey area as we haven’t as yet (touch wood) ever had had any problems concerning LIW. If there were problems that may lead to a negligence claim then each case would be considered on its merits.

It may be worth noting that individual home policies of the staff concerned may need to be endorsed with the fact that they are using their homes as a place of work as non-disclosure of this fact could compromise their own cover should they need to consider any claims.

Please note that as you can print to these printers from where ever you happen to be connected at any time, anywhere in the world then please DO NOT SET THIS PRINTER AS DEFAULT as any accidental print jobs may waste large quantities of paper that you would not be aware of and could seriously inconvenience colleagues who may be using the rooms at the time. Please choose the printer for the specific print job at the time.

Installing printer on Remote Desktop Connection

Tina wmv format

Tina LIW vodcast suitable for iPod

podcast url

Christine LIW Podcast

podcast url

To find the internet sharing on your phone (this is for a E650) first go to Start, then scroll down to Accessories and then  select Internet Sharing.  You can choose to connect to your computer using either USB or Bluetooth.  Once connected select the connect button on the phone.  At this point your computer may indicate that it has just discovered an internet sharing device and that it needs to install the driver.  Once the driver has been installed you should see on the phone that it says it is connected and you can then use your browser or any other program on your computer to access the internet.  The remote desktop will also work.

 The speed of the connection will depend on your phone and I would not recommend that this is your sole method of accessing the internet but rather a way to connect if you are in a  tight spot with no other method.