UK employees make £0.5bn in bogus expenses claims

As it is announced today that UK MPs have so far paid back half a million pounds in wrongly claimed expenses, new research from uSwitch.com reveals that UK employees make an additional £503 million every year by exaggerating or lying on expenses claims.

With many households affected by the poor economic climate, it seems claiming bogus expenses is becoming a popular way to help top up frozen or reduced salaries. According to the research, almost 2.7 million (16%) UK workers have made an average of £200 each per year by submitting false or exaggerated expense claims.

And while these figures come as a surprise to some, the survey found that a further 3.8 million employees (23%) state that while they have not themselves claimed false expenses, they know of a colleague who has.

According to the research, the most common way to bump up expenses claims is to add on extra mileage to petrol expense claims, with almost 2.8 million workers (17%) admitting to having done this. Further, over 832,000 admitted to asking for extra blank taxi receipts to allow them to submit extra claims.

Louise Bond, personal finance expert at uSwitch.com comments:

“It seems it is not just MPs who are running the risk of being caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Whilst the current climate is undoubtedly tougher than ever for employees when faced with pay cuts and pay freezes, it is perhaps understandable, if not at all condonable, if they do succumb to the temptation of being economical with the truth when it comes to submitting expense claims. Employees must think long and hard, however, before exaggerating or submitting a bogus expense claim as it is unlikely that, what some might regard as a ‘harmless’ indiscretion, is worth losing a job over.”