Showing posts with label shedworkers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shedworkers. Show all posts
Shedworkers save more than £1 000 a year on travel treats
Shedworkers save more than £1 000 a year on travel treats
New research from American Express reveals that the average commuter spends more than £1,000 a year on treats for their journey to and from work. Drinks are the most popular purchase with commuters spending £16.93 a month on tea, coffee, juice and energy drinks. Snacks such as crisps, chocolate and fruit, are the second favourite (£16.49), followed by breakfast on the way to work (£13.44). Spending on newspapers and magazines (£12.83), books and ebooks (£12), music (£11.83) and apps and games (£11.48) are also on the shopping list to help make the trip into work less appalling.
The main reasons given by the 3,000 adults polled in the survey for indulging in a daily treat are a ‘stressful day at the office’ (29%) and ‘ to cheer me up’ (22%).
The research also reveals that spending habits vary significantly, with Londoners spending more than £1,900 a year on treats, closely followed by those in Birmingham (£1,758). Brighton’s commuters are the least likely to part with their cash for treats, spending £600 a year. ----------------------------------------------------
Shedworkers save more than £1 000 a year on travel treats
Holidays for shedworkers
Holidays for shedworkers
When you need to get away from it all but still want the delight of a shedlike atmosphere, treehouse hotels may be the answer. Heres a nice piece in The Independent about six of the best around the world. Pictured above Is Keemala on Phuket, Thailand, inspired by a mythological clan, the We-Ha (Sky) people, who are believed to have built their homes suspended from the ground. Well worth a browse. --------------------------------------------------------
Holidays for shedworkers
Shedworkers and homeworkers at risk in new Government tax plan
Shedworkers and homeworkers at risk in new Government tax plan
The Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) has cautioned the UK Government against shifting the rules on travel expenses if they harm homeworkers.
Michael Steed, President of the ATT, said: “The Government has published a discussion paper which proposes changes to the current, sometimes complicated, rules on travel and subsistence for employees and under these proposed changes, homeworkers, who make a significant contribution to Britain’s successful flexible labour market, may be denied tax relief on travel between their home work base and their employers’ work places. We would not wish to see any of these arrangements disturbed by a disadvantageous shift in the travel and subsistence rules.”
One of the Government’s proposals is that employees who work in more than one location for more than 30 per cent of their working time should be allowed to choose which one of those locations or bases is their main working base. They would then be unable to claim tax relief on the travel costs incurred on journeys between home and that agreed main base.
However, the Government also proposes to deny homeworkers the ability to choose their home as their main base, if they have a base somewhere else, such as their employer’s head office, therefore denying relief on travel between their work place at home and the head office.
Michael Steed added: “It is unfair that homeworkers may not be allowed to nominate their home as their main base under the proposals. It could result in tax relief being denied on what is, in effect, legitimate business travel. This would leave either employers or employees out of pocket and could lead to some employees giving up their jobs. It feels like a backward step to consider denying tax relief on travel costs in this way, given the increased trend in homeworking. We urge the Government to consider carefully the implications of their proposals.” --------------------------------------------------------------------
-Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.
Shedworkers and homeworkers at risk in new Government tax plan
Insurance for shedworkers
Insurance for shedworkers
Only 42% of homeworkers are confident that their home insurance covers the equipment – such as computers, tablets and printers – they use for work, a survey by Gocompare.com Home Insurance suggests.
The comparison website compared over 300 home contents insurance policies and found that while most provide cover for business equipment, 5% only provide this cover as an optional extra, and 8% give no cover at all. Of those policies providing cover, there was a significant variation in the sums insured, from just £500 to unlimited cover. The vast majority (87%) of policies exclude cover for business stock. Of the 44 policies which cover business stock, half provide just £500 worth of cover.
Ben Wilson, home insurance spokesperson at Gocompare.com, said: “With many companies offering flexible working to employees, it’s not unusual for people to work from home either on a fulltime or occasional basis. But if you do so regularly you need to let your home insurer know that you are using your home for business purposes. This doesn’t apply if you only work the odd day or two from home, for example to look after a sick child.
“Your insurer will want to know the type of work you undertake at home. For example, whether it’s clerical work or whether you’re providing a service such as physiotherapy and have regular business visitors. As a rule of thumb, clerical work doesn’t make much difference to the cost of your cover because many policies cover administrative duties. However, receiving regular business visitors or storing stock could have a bigger impact on your insurance premium. However, some home insurers give a discount if your home is occupied during the day so it’s important to shop around to find the cover you need at a good price."
He added that failing to tell your insurer that you work from home could invalidate your policy if you need to make a claim.
“If you keep stock or product samples at home then you need to inform your insurer," he said. "Most contents insurance policies exclude cover for business stock, so you’ll probably need to buy a separate policy to cover this. Also, if in running your business you keep cash at home, then you’ll need to check your home insurance policy limits to make sure you have adequate cover. However, if you use equipment supplied by your employer, such as a work laptop, you should not put this on your own home insurance policy.” ----------------------------------------------------
Insurance for shedworkers
ABBA Shedworkers
ABBA Shedworkers
This is the wooden composing and writing hut on the Swedish island of Viggso in which members of the power ballad group ABBA wrote many of their hits. Owned by Agnetha Faltskog and Bjorn Ulvaeus, it was large enough for Benny Anderssons piano (which sold last year for £35,000) and a couple of chairs. A recreation of it (pictured below) is now on show at the Abba museum in Stockholm.
And heres a short video with the bands hair stylist taking a look inside.
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ABBA Shedworkers
Shedworkers need to stand up more to get healthier
Shedworkers need to stand up more to get healthier
Shedworkers, homeworkers and indeed anybody who works in a traditional office should be on their feet for at least two hours every day during working hours, according to recommendations in the first ever UK guidance designed to curb the health risks of too much cumulative sitting time.
Published online today in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the authors of the report say that this daily quota should eventually be bumped up to four hours a day, breaking up prolonged periods of sitting with the use of sit-stand desks, standing based work, and regular walk-abouts.
The guidance was drawn up by a panel of international experts chosen by Public Health England and Active Working CIC) comes in the wake of the growing body of research linking prolonged periods spent seated ? as opposed to being generally physically inactive ? with a heightened risk of serious illness and premature death.
“For those working in offices, 65-75% of their working hours are spent sitting, of which more than 50% of this is accumulated in prolonged periods of sustained sitting,” says the report. “The evidence is clearly emerging that a first ‘behavioural’ step could be simply to get people standing and moving more frequently as part of their working day.”
They recommend:
* 2 hours daily of standing and light activity (light walking) during working hours, eventually progressing to a total of 4 hours for all office workers whose jobs are predominantly desk based * Regularly breaking up seated based work with standing based work, with the use of adjustable sit-stand desks/work stations
* Avoidance of prolonged static standing, which may be as harmful as prolonged sitting
* Altering posture/light walking to alleviate possible musculoskeletal pain and fatigue as part of the adaptive process
* Encouraging staff to embrace other healthy behaviours, such as cutting down on drinking and smoking, eating a nutritious diet, and alleviating stress, -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shedworkers need to stand up more to get healthier
Female shedworkers
Female shedworkers
Theres been a lot written about this subject following a survey recently by a DIY superstore that women are buying more sheds (a trend that we have been writing about here on Shedworking for years). Theres a nice piece in the Telegraph, focusing on several women shedworkers including a particularly extensive gallery of writer Ali Harriss garden office. Pictured is Georgia Wilkinson’s home office, a former cricket pavilion. Heres a snippet:
“She-sheds are a response to the old cliché about sheds being a male bastion,” says Sally Coulthard, author of Shed Decor, the essential tome for shed and interior design enthusiasts. “Women are reclaiming the shed to spend time outside the house, to be able to separate work, family life and me time.” A corrugated iron structure, riddled with damp and a dingy colour scheme, will simply not do: today’s incarnation comes with all the fixtures and fittings, like a miniature house, with an emphasis on decor that wouldn’t look out of place in a glossy magazine.--------------------------------------------------------------------
-Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.
Female shedworkers
Home insurance for shedworkers
Home insurance for shedworkers
A new survey by Gocompare.com Home Insurance shows that shedworkers and other people working from home are often failing to take into account the impact their work may have on their lease, mortgage agreement or home insurance.
The survey of 1,800 UK adults reveals that a third of people in Britain have tried to make money from their home including opening their home to pet boarding, renting a room to a short-term guest through sites such as Airbnb, and running a beauticians business.
The survey also found that:
* 26% have not considered that their activities might invalidate their home insurance
* 18% had not informed their home insurer about their venture
* 13% had not investigated whether they would need to be licenced to run their home business (e.g. health and safety, food hygiene)
* 11% have not received permission from their mortgage lender, landlord or housing association
Around 6% said they had made an insurance claim as a result of their home business activities and half that figure admitted that their home-based work had got them into trouble with their mortgage lender or landlord/housing association. Another 2% said that their insurer refused to cover them for the activity they wanted to pursue.
Gocompare.com has produced an interactive guide on how to earn from your home --------------------------------------------------------------------
-Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.
Home insurance for shedworkers