The approved mileage rates review is finally on its way, giving millions of drivers who claim expenses a chance to explain that their cars have not been running on 2011 prices. Every dashboard is preparing a carefully itemised statement, although it still cannot remember where it put the receipt for the last pothole.
The Government says approved mileage allowance payment rates have not changed since 2011. Motoring costs, meanwhile, have evolved significantly. This is a polite official way of saying that a working car has acquired several expensive hobbies, including maintenance, fuel and the increasingly premium experience of remaining legal.
The review will take place before a future Budget and will focus on people who rely on their cars to do their jobs. The Government also plans to meet people struggling with increased costs. This is sensible. A mileage policy should hear from drivers, not only from the office chair that has never had to reverse into a tight space before breakfast.
Millions of workers claim motoring expenses from their employers, including people in vital sectors such as home care. They use their cars to reach work, then use their wages to discover that the journey was apparently a lifestyle choice. The review may now examine whether the rates reflect what travelling for work actually costs.
There is wider help at the pump, with fuel duty frozen until September. The Government is therefore holding one part of the bill still while reviewing another part that has been motionless since the age of folding maps. The dashboard welcomes the stability, provided nobody asks it to absorb a new tyre.
No review can make fuel, repairs or traffic disappear. It can consider whether workers are being left out of pocket when they use their own cars for the job. An expenses claim should not feel like a cryptic crossword with petrol fumes, especially when the answer is usually a request for a clearer receipt.
The dashboard has assembled its evidence. It consists of a fuel receipt, two service invoices and a small, furious noise from the front suspension. It is confident the Treasury will regard this as a compelling submission, shortly after asking whether the noise can be converted into a spreadsheet.
Source: GOV.UK.
