Two-fifths of Brits not reimbursed for work expenses

With mounting challenges around the cost of living, a staggering two-fifths (41%) of Brits admit that current employers will not reimburse them for work-related travel, food, parking and accommodation expenses. 

  

The average employee is currently missing out on £66 per year, rising to £87 in the capital. With a working population of 32.8 million across the UK according to ONS, this means over two billion pounds worth of expenses are being missed out on each year. This is according to new research from RingGo, the UK’s leading cashless parking provider. 

  

Workers could be missing out on more money, as over half (57%) state they have not been given an upper limit for expenses to claim, and nearly a third (29%) confess they don’t know if there’s a limit or not.  

  

Brits claiming expenses say that most time is spent reviewing fuel costs (45%), followed by parking fees (15%), food (14%) and accommodation (8%) costs. 

  

Over half (57%) of British workers claim or have claimed parking expenses, but many have fallen into pitfalls when doing so. Over one in ten (16%) have failed to claim because of missing receipts, with the same amount (16%) of people forgetting to claim in the first place. Additional reasons cited were too much hassle to bother (6%), lack of time to fill out expense report (4%), and missing the deadline to claim (3%).  

  

Over a third (37%) believe their time could be spent better when reporting expenses, with one in five (21%) feeling frustrated throughout the process, and one in ten (12%) left fatigued. 

  

Peter O’Driscoll, Managing Director, RingGo said: “During these turbulent and challenging times, it’s important that employees are properly reimbursed for legitimate expenses. Employers must deliver slick processes and easy routes to claim. 

  

“We found that only 13% of employees have been offered the option of expense claiming via app technology. This proves that employers are missing digitalisation opportunities, with many employees feeling frustrated and annoyed by current expense forms. 

  

“Our billing system simplifies the admin and reduces expenses for employers, with our suite of insight and reporting tools available to give managers a bird’s eye view of their fleet.” 

  

 

Methodology 

This survey was conducted between July and August 2022 and asked 2,000 UK citizens in the working population holding driver’s licenses. The age demographic for respondents was between 18 and 64.