Bulletin, 9 June 2022 (Homeworking allowance, Energy Bills Support Scheme, Rail and Mileage Guidance)

We hope you enjoyed the bank holiday weekend and had a re-energising Whitsun recess. Now that life has returned to normal following the pandemic, we are required to change the home working allowance provision. You can read more about this below. We are pleased to confirm that we will be attending the House Services Fair in July. We’ll let you know more details in due course and hope to see many of you then. The payment card lines for May are now available to be reconciled on IPSA Online. The deadline to reconcile these lines is 8 July, however, we recommend getting started on them as soon as possible so that any issues can be resolved in good time. You can find our payment card policy here.

If your payment card expires in May or before, and you have not yet received a replacement, please let us know. We anticipate that replacements for cards expiring in June will arrive in the next two weeks. If you have not received a replacement by July, please contact us. Please note that we require confirmation of address from the cardholder.

Energy Bills Support Scheme

In addition to the recent £150 council tax rebate, there has been an enhancement to the Energy Bills Support Scheme. Originally announced as a £200 loan, this has been amended to a £400 payment which will not be recovered through higher bills in future years.

Energy suppliers will deliver this support to households with a domestic electricity meter over 6 months from October. Direct debit and credit customers will have the money credited to their accounts. If you are in an IPSA-funded home and your energy bills are adjusted at the source you do not need to take any action as this will be reflected in the amount claimed. If you are in an IPSA-funded home and your energy bills are not adjusted at source (which means that the £400 is credited to your bank account) this amount should be repaid to IPSA. Please read the section below for guidance on how to do this.

How to repay money to IPSA

Any repayment made to us can be done via bank transfer, listing your name and the reasons for repayment as the reference e.g. A SURNAME PAY CARD or A SURNAME DEP/LOAN. Account Name: IPSA Sort Code: 60-70-80 Account Number: 10012524 Please could you also complete a Repayment form which can be emailed to info@theipsa.org.uk to ensure that the repayment is allocated correctly on our system. There is more information about making repayments on our MP site here.

Homeworking Allowance

In March, we confirmed that the Covid homeworking allowance of £26 per month would temporarily continue for staff members who were working from home, but that we would be reviewing this position over the coming months in line with HMRC guidelines.

Now that Covid-related restrictions have been lifted and there is no general work-from-home requirement in place, we have determined that it is the right time to end payment of the allowance for the majority of staff members, as per HMRC rules. The final payment for staff on office-based contracts (including hybrid contracts) will be in July 2022. Staff members who are on home-based contracts will remain eligible for the allowance beyond July. We have published further guidance and information on our website, which you can find here.

IPSA Online Rail and Mileage Guidance

In May we introduced two new reports to help you with travel claims – the MP Office Rail Fare Limits Report and the MPD Summarized Mileage Report. We hope these have been useful. We now have guidance on our website to help you use these reports. To learn how to check the standard fare limits for journeys between any given station and London Terminals by using the MP Office Rail Fare Limits Report, visit Checking the standard fare for rail journeys. To learn how to track the number of miles so far claimed in relation to journeys by private car, motorcycle, or bicycle by using the "MPD Summarized Mileage Report", visit Keeping track of claimed mileage.