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They say it is a massive problem that affects every business and government agency in the UK, and yet is not being addressed.

A confidential survey by software company Software Europe was sent to 6000 employees of their UK clients, asking if they over claimed on mileage.

Fraudulent claims

Mileage makes up approximately 50 per cent of the total amount claimed through employee expenses, and also provides the biggest opportunity to falsify claims.

“We were astonished to find that 35 per cent of the 1000 who responded admitted that they did make exaggerated claims,” said Software Europe marketing executive Tracey Turton.

Explanations offered for making fraudulent claims ranged from employees feeling they were underpaid to wanting compensation for getting home late, and 90 per cent of those who did it said they got away with it.

These excessive claims are going unnoticed or unchallenged by managers and accounts departments across the UK, not least because they are difficult and time-consuming to monitor using paper-based systems.

Automated solution 

Duplicate, inaccurate or inconsistent claims can be flagged up very easily, however, with the right computerised system.

Turton explained that at a meeting with clients from one government agency, she plucked out the details of the employee who was claiming the highest mileage and found that she was consistently over claiming her true mileage by 25 per cent.

She found that most shocking thing that, because this involved only taxpayers’ money, neither line managers nor accounts staff had any appetite to tackle the problem.

Turton pointed out that - unsurprisingly - reporting and analysing this data becomes much simpler and quicker if you have an automated solution to manage employee expenses.

Her firm’s software product, for one, automatically calculates distances between post-codes put in by employees listing their journeys.

Embarrassing claimants 

“We effectively reduce mileage claims by embarrassing claimants – because the software shows the true distance side by side with what they are actually claiming,” she said.

According to the company’s data, a percentage of all employees will exaggerate their expense claims if the system they use is not clear and if employers have no process in place to police it.

Overall, over claiming on mileage costs UK companies and agencies almost 20 per cent of their total expenses bill, though given the right software support, managers could put a stop to this overnight.

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Related links

• Software Europe