Inflating Expenses is Big Business
advertisment
More in @WORK
back-up- (Learn to) Love Thy Employer
- Monk and the Office Rottweiler
- Coming to Blackberry Near You?
- No More Women on Top
- The Jobs of Others
- Markets Down, Dress Up
- Which Royal Bank to Trust with your Money
- Bald Employee Loses Discrimination Claim
- Build Your Own Hedge Fund
- Redundancy - Not the End of the World
Related Content
- Is Big Business Ever Green? (01/10/2007)
- Business Knowledge For IT In Investment Banking (15/01/2007)
- Business Knowledge for IT in Investment Management (11/09/2007)
- Business Knowledge for IT in Retail Banking (15/11/2007)
- Business Knowledge for IT in Hedge Funds (25/03/2008)
- The Big Short Break (19/02/2008)
Is it surprising that UK employees 'make' an extra £1bn* a year on fraudulent expenses? Or is it surprising that, on average, they only claim an extra £17 per month? (Or that only 18% of those surveyed admitted to doing it?)
Budget hotel chain Travelodge (who can no doubt help you save on your expenses) sponsored a survey of 3,000 UK employees about their extracurricular expense activities, and what they found was...well, surprising (we know, no surprise there).
The most popular three expense scams are:
And although only 18% of the respondents admitted to fiddling with their expense reports, 43% said they considered it a 'legitimate' way to make extra cash, and 45% said that 'all of their colleagues are doing it'.
Of course, the survey also revealed a few particularly noteworthy claims, including an office hamster named Barry (sounds legit to us), a new garden shed which was turned into a home office (sounds smart to us), and a bit of plastic surgery, an engagement ring, a honeymoon, and even a private investigator hired to watch a cheating partner (hopefully not made in that order, by the same person).
But if 43% of the workforce thinks that topping up expense reports is legitimate, shouldn't that £1bn be more like £2bn?
* In case you're wondering how they got to £1bn, they took the UK workforce (29m), applied the 18% who said they did fiddle with expenses (5,220,000), and multiplied that by £204/year (or £17/month).
The most popular three expense scams are:
- Using extra taxi receipts to claim back non-existent journeys
- Adding extra mileage
- Going to a cheap restaurant with a business client, then claiming back an expensive (personal) meal
And although only 18% of the respondents admitted to fiddling with their expense reports, 43% said they considered it a 'legitimate' way to make extra cash, and 45% said that 'all of their colleagues are doing it'.
Of course, the survey also revealed a few particularly noteworthy claims, including an office hamster named Barry (sounds legit to us), a new garden shed which was turned into a home office (sounds smart to us), and a bit of plastic surgery, an engagement ring, a honeymoon, and even a private investigator hired to watch a cheating partner (hopefully not made in that order, by the same person).
But if 43% of the workforce thinks that topping up expense reports is legitimate, shouldn't that £1bn be more like £2bn?
* In case you're wondering how they got to £1bn, they took the UK workforce (29m), applied the 18% who said they did fiddle with expenses (5,220,000), and multiplied that by £204/year (or £17/month).
