That's basically just a $1000 bump in your salary. The fiction that you're getting an extra technology benefit is just that, a fiction.
From a pragmatic point of view, and an accounting one (for the employer), your "benefits" are taken from your salary. The only time those benefits are worth it for the employer is if it pays for something pre-tax rather than post-tax (health care falls into this category, hence the popularity of employer provided health care).
The accounting term for this is "total employee compensation". That's what matters to the employer when calculating the cost/benefit of an employee.
Be careful what you ask for in benefits. They can be expensive for the employee.
That does happen a lot with expense reports. They get abused all the time. Sometimes, though, employees do get their ERs audited, and get fired for ER fraud. Especially if the employer needs a reason to fire you.
my employer does not reimburse home office expenses, but several of my friends work for employers that do. the way it works for them is that they get a yearly "technology" budget of about $1000-2000. then they can spend it on any equipment they want to use at home or in the office. as long as it's some sort of computer hardware or office furniture, no questions are asked.