British workers 'pocket half a billion pounds' by fiddling expenses

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British workers 'pocket half a billion pounds' by fiddling expenses

Fri 19th Jun 2009

The British workforce is making up to half a billion pounds a year by claiming for things on their company's expenses that they should not be, it has emerged.

New research from uSwitch.com shows that 2.8 million Brits exaggerate their car mileage to claim extra cash on petrol expenses, while more than 832,000 people admitted to asking taxi drivers for blank receipts so they could claim the cash back.

The poll also found that four per cent of respondents said that they take family and friends out on the company account.

When it comes to phones, 4.6 million confessed to using their work mobile out of hours and 2.7 million said that they even call family and friends overseas on the company phone.

Louise Bond, a personal finance expert at uSwitch.com, said that in the current climate, it is "perhaps understandable, if not at all condonable, if [workers] do succumb to the temptation of being economical with the truth when it comes to submitting expense claims".

A recent expenses scandal involving MPs has seen the likes of Sir Gerald Kaufman, Kitty Ussher and David Cameron come under fire for their actions.

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