Working from home tax relief ended on 6 April 2026 — but you can still backdate four years, and uniform and tool allowances are untouched. Both are free to claim. Here is exactly what is still yours to take.
Working from home tax relief was abolished on 6 April 2026. From the 2026/27 tax year, employees can no longer claim the £6-a-week deduction for extra household costs, even if your employer requires you to work from home. Around 300,000 people are affected.
But here is the part almost nobody has been told: you can still backdate a claim for up to four earlier tax years. In 2026/27 that covers 2022/23 to 2025/26. If you were genuinely required to work from home in any of those years and never claimed, that money is still sitting there — and each tax year has its own four-year deadline, so it disappears year by year.
The flat rate was £6 a week, claimed as tax relief rather than cash. What you get back depends on your tax rate:
Four qualifying years could therefore be worth roughly £250 to £500. Not life-changing, but it is your money and it takes minutes.
The rules for the earlier years still apply. You qualify if you were required to work from home — for example your employer had no office, or your job required you to live far from one.
You do not qualify if you chose to work from home, including where your contract simply allowed it, or where the office was full on the day. During the pandemic years the rules were widened, so 2020/21 and 2021/22 were more generous — but those years are now outside the four-year window.
This relief was not abolished. If you pay to wash, repair or replace a recognisable work uniform, or buy tools for your job, and your employer does not reimburse you, you can claim a flat rate agreed for your occupation:
You receive tax relief on that amount, so a £60 allowance is worth about £12 a year at basic rate. Modest — but it is backdatable four years, and HMRC now has an online route for flat-rate-only claims that does not ask for receipts or evidence.
Claiming direct through HMRC is free and usually takes a few minutes. Tax rebate firms advertise heavily around uniform and work-expense claims and typically keep a large share of whatever you get back.
Some also ask you to sign a deed of assignment, which can route future refunds to them as well. If a company contacts you offering to reclaim work expenses, you can safely do it yourself instead. If you think you have already signed something you did not understand, our scam check can help you work out what you are looking at.
Keep a note of the date you claimed and save the confirmation. A Proof Pack keeps it together if you need to chase.
The abolition applies to the employee deduction only. Two things are unchanged: your employer can still reimburse reasonable homeworking costs — commonly £6 a week — free of Income Tax and National Insurance; and if you are self-employed, your use-of-home claim through your business accounts is not affected at all.
So if you are employed and working from home, the practical move now is to ask your employer whether they operate a homeworking allowance. Our letter writer can draft that request.
Not for 2026/27 onwards — the deduction was abolished on 6 April 2026. But you can still backdate a claim for up to four earlier tax years if you were genuinely required to work from home and never claimed.
The flat rate was £6 a week. That is worth about £62 a year to a basic-rate taxpayer and about £125 to a higher-rate taxpayer. Four qualifying years could therefore be worth roughly £250 to £500.
No. Flat rate expenses are pre-agreed amounts by occupation and need no receipts. HMRC has an online route for flat-rate-only claims that does not ask for evidence.
You do not need to. Claiming direct through HMRC is free and usually takes a few minutes. Claims firms typically keep a large share of your refund, and you can do exactly the same thing yourself.
Choosing to work from home never qualified, even before the change. Backdated claims still require that you were genuinely required to work from home for the year in question.
One relief closed on 6 April 2026 and another stayed open. If you were required to work from home in any of the last four tax years and never claimed, that window is still ajar — and it narrows every April. Uniform and tool allowances remain claimable, free, and without receipts. Neither needs a company taking a cut.
Work expenses are one route of many. The Money Scan checks the rest against your circumstances.