Civil servants claim for home-working kits despite being able to return to work for months

CIVIL servants have claimed for home-working kit for months since being able to return to their desks, we can reveal.

Some 219 items have been ordered at a cost of £16,738 by Defra staff since avoid-the-office rules went in January.

It includes 75 monitors, 28 desks, eight footrests and two keyboard wrist supports.

A £444 ergonomic chair was among 55 chairs claimed. One mandarin requested a £448 “desk and sensory mat”, documents show.

Staff at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs have been slow to return to their offices.

Only a third are back, says efficiency minister Jacob Rees-Mogg.

John O’Connell, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers don’t appreciate paying for empty desks, let alone work from home luxuries. Civil servants are still splurging thousands kitting out home offices while their expensive offices lie empty.

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“Ministers must ensure not a penny more is wasted on bureaucrats’ home comforts.”

Defra said its £150 home-working equipment allowance offered during Covid, plus special circumstances payments, was axed at the end of March.