UK employers are losing more than a £1bn annually from false expense claims, representing almost a quarter of the total paid out by companies, latest research has found.
A survey of more than 4.8 million expense sheets by employee expenses service provider, Global Expense, found that fraudulent expense claims account for about £350m, while £671m is paid to to employees for expenses not covered by company policy.
Employee claimed an average of £1,555 last year contributing to an estimated total of £5.8bn. Eight employees shared the highest claim of £24,000 for a week’s training, while the purchase of 20 bibles, haircuts and even betting slip, were some of the slips logged in as expenses.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
David Vine, managing director at GlobalExpense, warned that companies are throwing away money by failing to check claims.
“Not all out-of-policy expenses are phoney – it may be that an employee has overstepped the spending limit by £1 or failed to produce a valid receipt. But this is an area where public figures and working professionals can forget their ethics,” he said.
