Employee Expenses Annex - accommodation and subsistence
Contents
- Accommodation in the UK and overseas
- Conference accommodation
- Staying with friends and family
- Incidental expenses
- Subsistence in the UK (including alcoholic and non-aloholic drinks)
- Tips and taxes
- Subsistence overseas
- Travel visas, work permits and citizenship applications
- Passports
- Vaccinations
- Travel insurance
- Commission charges and foreign currency
- Miscellaneous expenditure
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Accommodation
For longer journeys, it is permitted to book overnight accommodation, for example when travelling for an early morning meeting, it may be appropriate to travel the previous day and book accommodation.
Where flight schedules would otherwise justify business class travel, staff may instead opt to travel the day before and stay overnight, with economy class flights.
Where possible, only regulated accommodation should be booked and invoiced directly to the University. Where an employee needs to stay in a particular hotel for business or security reasons (for example, it is the venue of a conference or event) then that specific hotel or venue may be booked.
Accommodation in the UK
Where there is flexibility in choice of hotel, the daily rate limits apply unless there are no suitable or secure hotels within a reasonable distance of the destination.
See Use of Airbnb and unregulated suppliers for more information.
The daily rate limits, for an overnight stay in the UK are:
- Major city*: £200 (*London, Edinburgh, Bristol, and Oxford)
- Outside of a major city: £140
These are inclusive of VAT.
Exceeding UK accommodation rates.
Accommodation overseas
Use accommodation which is equivalent to UK 3-stars. For areas where there is a security or safety risk, the rating may be increased. It is not possible to apply the standard accommodation rates because in some countries this would be excessive whilst in others, they would be insufficient.
For longer stays, for example, research fellow, rental accommodation should be investigated to ensure the best use of University funds.
For travel risk assessment and other guidance, refer to Safeguarding Work Away.
Conference accommodation
Where there is a demonstrable benefit to staying in the conference hotel, the extra expense may be considered, with Head of Institution approval.
Exceeding overnight accommodation limit when attending a conference.
Staying with friends and family
Employees travelling on University business who are entitled to stay in hotel accommodation may wish to stay with friends or relatives.
In such cases, a flat payment of £25 per night may be claimed by an employee. This will be reimbursed to employees via their monthly salary subject to any deductions.
This is a known, and accepted, exception to the principles of requiring receipts for actual incurred expense. It is intended as a recompense to the host and could take the form of a meal out or purchased groceries.
How to claim for staying with friends and family.
Personal incidental expenses
The University neither reimburses nor pays a fixed allowance to cover the cost of personal expenses (for example, newspapers, personal phone calls, bar bills, mini bar, video or movies, and laundry costs.) for employees who stay away overnight whilst on business.
Where prior arrangements have been made for the cost of the hotel room (plus breakfast, if this is not included in the room rate) to be invoiced directly to the University, the employee is responsible for separately settling the costs of personal expenses prior to checking-out.
Meals and subsistence (individual)
When employees are travelling on business and are more than five miles from both their normal place of work and home, they are allowed to claim for the meals that they purchase for their own personal consumption (subject to the rates below), this is known as subsistence.
In each case, the employee is entitled to the lesser of the allowance or the actual cost incurred. These rates apply to all expenditure whether funded by the institution or a research grant.
Subsistence in the UK
The University will refund an employee for a modest breakfast, light lunch, and a more substantial evening meal.
Breakfast - the subsistence rate is £12 and can be claimed if
- overnight accommodation does not include breakfast, it may be reclaimed separately.
- an individual is required, by exception, to leave home early, for example, before 6 a.m., to work somewhere other than their normal workplace.
Lunch - the subsistence rate is £12
When absent from the normal place of work for more than 5 hours, and spanning the lunchtime period, lunch may be reclaimed.
Dinner - the subsistence rate is £29
When absent from the normal place of work, for more than 10 hours, or staying away overnight.
If absent for a period that spans both lunch and dinner, a claim up to £41 would be allowed, for example, away between 9 am and 10 pm.
Alcoholic drinks
Reasonable costs of alcoholic drinks which are taken with a meal may be reimbursed, where the total costs fall within the appropriate subsistence rate.
Where alcoholic drinks are purchased separately, that is, they do not accompany a meal, they are not seen as subsistence and will not be reimbursed.
Check the conditions of the grant as some funders may disallow any claims that include any element of alcohol.
Non-alcoholic drinks
Reasonable costs of non-alcoholic drinks may be reimbursed where the total cost falls within the subsistence rates.
There is no requirement for these to accompany a meal.
Tips and taxes
Gratuities are claimable where they are not excessive and are in line with the customary rates for that country.
Please note: the subsistence rates (above) include taxes (for example., VAT or local equivalent) and gratuities (tips).
Subsistence overseas
Employees can be reimbursed for meals that are equivalent to the kind of meal that can be purchased in the UK, within the UK rates. Employees are not expected to exist on meagre portions in a country where the cost of living is high. Equally, the University will not meet the cost of a lavish 5-course meal simply because the cost of living is low in a particular country.
Additional overseas travel costs
Employees are responsible for ensuring that they have valid passports, and appropriate visas or right to work documentation, for overseas business travel.
Travel visas, work permits and citizenship applications
The University will reimburse costs where employees require visas, or work permits as a direct result of overseas business travel.
Additionally, where employees are going to work overseas, on assignment, or at the instigation of the University, the University may agree to fund or reimburse some, or all, of these costs.
When coming to the UK to take up a new role with the University, employees can obtain a loan towards the costs via the Visa Loan Scheme.
Passports
If an employee needs to obtain a passport solely for the purposes of travelling on University business, then the cost of the passport may be claimed.
It is accepted that employees have passports for their own personal use and the cost of a passport will not be refunded. The University is not responsible for the cost of replacing lost or stolen passports.
Vaccinations
The University will reimburse costs where employees require vaccinations because of overseas business travel.
Staff are encouraged to contact the Occupational Health Service whose experienced staff can provide appropriate vaccinations, malaria prophylaxis and first aid kits at prices cheaper than those available from travel clinics.
Travel insurance
Annual or single-trip travel insurance policies are not reimbursable.
The University’s travel policy must be used instead.
The University provides travel insurance for employees and members of supervised institution field trips whilst travelling abroad on University business.
Register trips at the time of booking via the online portal. This can be accessed from the Travel Insurance webpage. As part of the University’s duty of care, a Travel Risk assessment must be completed prior to travel, regardless of duration.
Commission charges and fees
Where an individual is charged a commission for the exchange of funds or the withdrawal of currency whilst abroad, these are reclaimable to the extent that they relate to business (as opposed to any personal) expenditure.
Employees are discouraged from using airport bureau de changes as these do not, generally, represent value for money.
Foreign currency
Where expenditure is incurred in a foreign currency, the aim is to reimburse employees for the sterling equivalent of the actual costs.
In the absence of a bank or bureau de change or credit card receipt, the average ask rate from OANDA.com, on the day of the expenditure, will be used.
Where it is known that foreign currency is required during a trip then employees can apply for a foreign currency advance via the University Cashier
Miscellaneous business expenditure whilst travelling
Essential costs are allowable with suitable business justification.
Employees are responsible for declaring to the relevant Border Agency official, any items that they have purchased whilst overseas and they import into the UK.