News
2.5 million employees would exaggerate their expense claims reveals GlobalExpense
Around 2.5million employees believe that it is acceptable to exaggerate their expense claims at work, estimates Business Process Outsource provider GlobalExpense. Of the 10 million employees that claim expenses, a survey estimated that 25 percent think that it is acceptable to exaggerate claims some or all of the time.
Of the country's 27.9 million workforce 27 percent believe that their colleagues sometimes inflate their expense claims, and over a million people (4 percent) regard their workmates to such a low extent that they think they over-claim all of the time.
Ashley Whittaker, CEO of GlobalExpense, said: “Clearly expense fraud is too easy to commit. The fact that a quarter of those who claim expenses think that exaggerating their figures is acceptable is quite disturbing. British industry must tighten up its procedures to prevent such a loss of revenue and a negative culture of petty theft in the workplace.”
The survey, carried out by Gallup, also showed that while 39 percent of those who inflate their expenses would only do so by up to 10 percent of the amount, nearly 8 percent of them would be happy to exaggerate by at least 50 percent.
Ashley Whittaker added: “Whilst the good news is that the vast majority of employees are very honest, UK businesses still need to act because of the sizeable minority of expense-thieves. Preventative measures are not hard to implement, yet it is clear from the statistics that employees are taking advantage of weak internal systems and in many cases, getting away with what they can.
“Taking into account the amounts that individuals claimed they would exaggerate, we can very conservatively estimate that at least £230 million is claimed in inflated expense claims in the UK each year. However, from my time working as an auditor, I suspect the figure is substantially higher from the cases I uncovered.”
The survey highlighted that the younger the person, the more likely they are to believe that exaggerating their expense claim is acceptable.
However, in some cases the businesses themselves are not innocent. The most popular reasons for employees hiking up claims figures are the fact that the company doesn't cover all their costs. Other reasons cited as to why some people exaggerate expenses included employees not thinking they are being paid enough; the boss being too slow to pay; they didn't like their job; or they don't like their boss.
Ashley Whittaker added: “The fact that over one million people don't know exactly what they can claim for is also worrying. A huge culture change is essential for British businesses to move forward. Employees need to be clearly told as to what is acceptable and what is not. Systems need to be simplified and employees need to be better informed about what the rules are. These should then be enforced. “There is no need for every employee to be treated as untrustworthy – most clearly aren't. But a sizeable minority are systematically cheating their employers – putting up costs and generally contributing to the development of a culture of petty theft that can become very damaging.”
Back to news index
Contact us
Phone us on
08717 40 80 10
