Employees are subbing their employers more than £300 million a month through expenses. However, slow repayment means many employees are putting off personal spending or stopping undertaking tasks that generate business expenses.
Research from virtual payment technology specialist Conferma, revealed that more than a third of employees use their own money to pay for work-related expenses at least once a month, with an average claim of £72.20.
Although this is common business practice, 33 per cent of the 1,009 adults surveyed said that they experience personal cash flow issues because of their company’s expense submission deadline.
The research showed that 37 per cent of employees had to wait up to or over two weeks to be paid back after submitting a claim. In addition, half of those aged 18–34 said they had less money to spend on personal items in the short term.
The delay in reimbursing expenses is also having an impact on employers. More than 40 per cent of workers admitted that they would stop spending money on business expenses if they had to wait a significant amount of time to be repaid. This could have an impact on business performance, with 19 per cent saying they would stop undertaking business travel and 43 per cent saying they would halt meeting current or prospective customers and undertaking marketing activities.
“The scale of this issue identified in these findings has taken us by surprise,” said Simon Barker, Co-Founder and CEO of Conferma. “It simply should not be the case in today’s world that individuals, particularly the low-paid, are having to hold back personal spending due to the delay in expense repayment. Likewise, it is staggering that a single business opportunity should be missed due to an employee’s decision to hold off marketing because of these inefficiencies.
“This is a problem that is understandable in 1988 but not 2018. Businesses must do more to address this issue for their own benefit as well as the wellbeing of their own staff.”
