Home to duty query

Hi

I have recently moved home slightly further away from my Sqn. I now go to the sqn straight from work as such a question has been raised if I am allowed to claim home to duty due to not traveling directly from my home. I am sure this can’t be the first time that this has occurred any advice or references as to where I can find the answer would be helpfull.

You can easily solve this by driving past your house on your way home from work then claiming what you are entitled to. Make sure you drive past your house each time you claim otherwise it could be considered fraud. No one will be able to verify your claim, as you can’t prove a negative.

Understood?

Slight problem with that is it’s a hour round trip hence why I’m not currently doing that. However due to toll roads ect there is also a higher cost to doing so

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Frankly if you attend the sqn then you are entitled to HTD and any other costs usually incurred. I have over the years gone to the sqn direct to / from work or to / from other places and claimed the HTD and I would put good money that all staff have done similar, if they haven’t done this they are either lucky or fibbing.

I don’t feel that “entitled to HTD” would stand up in court where you sign to say you have done a journey from Home to Sqn, but actually done Work to Sqn. Doubt anyone would care if Work to Sqn is more miles. That said, it makes up for all the times we go the sqn and can’t claim mileage!

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As I say how many of us do or have done as I have and still do?

Who is going to check and if they wanted to get snotty and say that you can’t claim HTD unless you are going directly to/from the sqn to/from your home address, just stay at home. No skin off my nose.

The OP is doing what we all do and I wouldn’t get too bothered. Your OC will be happy enough that you have attended, regardless of route.

You’re not the first and won’t be the last, whoever is questioning this needs to give their head a shake. (Start rocking up late and saying that due to having to go home first you ran into traffic! - slight sarcasm that last bit but hopefully you know what I mean)

How far do we have to travel before we can claim?

I think that in theory it’s one mile; however three miles are deducted from the return journey so if it’s less than 1.5 miles then you won’t get anything.

(I wonder if you put in a claim for one mile whether HQAC send you a bill for 25p per parade night?)

You need to travel 3 miles one way before you can claim.

We’ve got a member of staff whose round trip is not much over 6 miles and it amuses me that their claim costs more to process than they get.

Interestingly I got my H2D letter yesterday. It was for the princely sum of £8.

I live exactly 3 miles from my Sqn (one way).

It seems to be an awful lot of admin… I wonder how many CFAVs are claiming HTD across the RAFAC?

Why not do a specific term, say one year, with the full paperwork chain. Then, whatever you did on the year becomes your permanent annual entitlement - unless you move address, or perhaps become long-term sick. There might be +/- over a year, but the general average number of journeys would be about the same longer term.

It’s all going electronic soon so the processing time will vanish down to a minimum amount

TBH, I’m not sure about the legality of that let alone whether it’s a sensible procedure.

Given that you could in theory have people claiming well over £1,000 PA I think that HMRC would want to see up-to-date expenses claims for people.

If that is for those who claim separately to get the difference paid between HQAC rate & “HMRC rate,” surely that is separate from HQAC paperwork? Proof at that could easily be a copy of the attendance as per Bader, so XX days @ YY rate = £ZZ.

No, I’m saying that they payment from HQAC could be over £1,000 - I can’t see HMRC being happy that sums of that size are being paid out (tax-free) without accurate accounting.

£1000 / pa = £20 / week in round figures; 2 round trips to / from sqn = £5 / single journey (20 miles @ £0.25/mile?)?? We are not talking “buy the villa in Barbados” type of expenditure.

All it takes is someone from HQAC (or the relevant accounting department) to approach HMRC to see if this is feasible - even if there was a designated upper limit. Streamlining the process won’t happen if the old-fashioned system remains.

They’d probably turn around and say “well it’s mileage between two fixed points and you have a register of attendance, just submit that as evidence of each claim”.

And what about if you decide to significantly increase your commitment? Hardly encouraging that your HTD won’t go up with your attendance…

I can’t help but feel that you’re looking to solutions for a problem that isn’t really there.