Fewer people are claiming back expenses, research shows

Date: 11th June 2009

The number of people claiming back their expenses has dropped by 18 per cent since last year, according to reports from Barclaycard.

Last year, 79 per cent of people claimed back all their expenses. This year the figure has dropped to just 61 per cent.

The report also states that only 32 per cent claimed back for travel expenses, amounting to an average of £373 per person in unclaimed travel expenses for the year.

Gill Upton, editor of The Business Travel Magazine, blamed common, out-of-date, manual expense-claiming procedures for the figures.

She said: "A lot of people have not automated the expense process. I'm not surprised at Barclaycards findings because [manual claiming] is a messy process."

Ms Upton went on to say that the figures could in part, also be down to employees' focus being elsewhere.

She added: "In the middle of a recession, the pressure is on to clinch deals. The last thing they can think of is doing their expenses."

For many companies, it is perhaps a good thing; Barclaycard suggests that companies could have been financially crippled if employees had tried to claim back all of the estimated half a billion in travel expenses last year.