Pippa - to my knowledge in the UK market an overnight allowance / salary uplift has always been the exception rather than the norm; the norm being to have expenses paid in full up to certain pre-agreed limits.This is primarily a tax issue. When I worked with Roland Berger the UK consultants and the Germanic consultants had totally different expenses policies. Those in the UK office could reclaim all expenses up to certain pre-agreed limits and these were paid in full without any tax. Had we been paid fixed amounts for being away from home then this would have been treated as income and taxed accordingly. Our German colleagues by contrast could not reclaim expenses, but for every day they were away they received a per diem allowance on which in practice they could make a decent profit if they chose to live frugally...Expenses are charged on to clients, so the only thing I could imagine may possibly have changed is that consulting staff are being asked to live within more frugal pre-agreed expenses limits, but I've not heard of any examples of this...Tony RestellTop-Consultant.com
