More than a third of employees have fiddled their expenses in the past, according to new research.
A survey conducted by pollster YouGov found that this figure has increased from a quarter in 2001.
The survey found that four in 10 respondents who deem it acceptable to exaggerate expense claims will add as much as 9% to an expense claim’s value. An additional 41% will inflate expense claims by between 10-25%. A small minority will even double the claim.
David Vine, MD at expense management firm, GlobalExpense, who commissioned the research, said: “Employees are clearly becoming far more cynical towards their employers and feel entitled to cheat on their expenses if they think the company isn’t paying them their dues.
“Businesses need to act quickly to stop this rot before it becomes an ingrained culture, not least because the sums can add up to millions of pounds lost to fraud.”
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
More than half of respondents believe it acceptable for employees to exaggerate their expenses if they are not paid a fair salary.
“The pattern that emerges from the survey results is one of grievance and retribution. Unhappy employees feel justified in making exaggerated expense claims in order to ‘get back’ what they perceive the company owes them,” Vine concluded.
