Weekly Blog — speaking truth to power – Mileage Rate Increase

Monday 19th October 2026

Weekly Blog — speaking truth to power – Mileage Rate Increase

Some good news for a change, and it doesn’t need caveats. HMRC has put its mileage rate up for the first time in fifteen years, and it’s backdated. If you drive between sites or do home visits as part of your job, this one’s worth two minutes of your time.

 

What’s actually changed

The HMRC rate for the first 10,000 business miles a year has gone from 45p to 55p a mile. It’s backdated to 6 April this year, so any qualifying mileage you’ve claimed since April should be topped up to the new rate, not just mileage going forward. Anything above 10,000 miles stays at 25p, that part hasn’t moved.

Forty-five pence hadn’t shifted since 2011, so this is the first real increase most of us have ever seen on this rate. For anyone doing regular mileage as part of their job, home visits, moving between sites, covering multiple locations in a week, that difference adds up fast over a year.

 

We’ve written to HR asking the Council to adopt the new rate and apply the backdating properly, so nobody has to chase up an underpaid claim from earlier in the year themselves.

 

What to do

Check your last few mileage claims against the old and new rate. If you’ve been paid at 45p for miles driven since 6 April, that’s a shortfall you’re entitled to have corrected. If your payslips don’t show mileage clearly enough to tell, ask your line manager or payroll for a breakdown, you’re entitled to see it.

If you raise this with your service and get nowhere, or you’re told the Council hasn’t adopted the new rate yet, let us know. We’re already on it, but the more members who flag it, the faster this gets sorted properly.

 

Best wishes John Burgess Branch Secretary, Barnet UNISON