Barclaycard Reveals Huge Black Hole In Unclaimed UK Business Travel
Expenses
Released
on: June 9, 2009, 7:57 am
Author: Andrew Bond
Industry: Financial
The
new Barclaycard 13th Annual Commercial Business Travel Survey
has highlighted a worrying trend that employees might not be as
prudent with managing their own business travel expenses as they
perhaps should be. Thirty two per cent of the business travellers
surveyed stated that they fail to claim back all of their expenses,
amounting to an average £373 in unclaimed business travel
expenses each year. The survey also found that the more senior
an employee is, the more money they are likely to lose in unclaimed
expenses. There is also a clear division between the sexes as
it appears men are lazier about claiming expenses than their female
colleagues.
There
are 38,486 companies employing more than 100 people in the UK,
according to the Office of National Statistics, and even assuming
each of these companies only employs 100 people and a third of
these employees do not claim back, the total loss in unclaimed
expenses would amount to a staggering half a billion pounds (£473,724,174)
in the past year.
Worryingly,
if employees tried to claim back almost half a billion in travel
expenses from last year, companies could be crippled in an already
pressurised economic environment. This begs the question does
the government have an obligation to both the individual and businesses
to lay down general guidelines on claiming expenses that will
protect both parties?
In
addition, Barclaycard
found that only 61 per cent of respondents claim back all of their
expenses - a drop from 79 per cent last year - suggesting that
the UK is becoming less rather than more financially prudent as
a nation and there is a growing problem with British business
travellers managing money.
Neil
Radley, Managing Director of Barclaycard Commercial, commented:
"Anyone who regularly travels on business knows keeping track
of all expenses can be tricky, especially when your top priority
is your performance. Managing incidental and often small costs
can drop to the bottom of the list of priorities. Barclaycard
has found that the most sensible action companies can take is
to help their employees to centralise their costs and to give
them the facility to create automatic records by using company
credit cards responsibly to keep better track of their expenses."
ENDS
About
Barclaycard Commercial
The 13th annual Barclaycard Commercial Business Travel Survey
was conducted in December 2008, amongst a nationwide sample of
Barclaycard Commercial card holders. A
total of 2,202 respondents (CEOs, chairmen, non-executives, financial
directors, executive directors, managers and personal assistants)
provided their thoughts on all aspects of business travel including
attitudes to the environment and in-flight technology, airlines
and hotel preferences and online bookings.
Barclaycard,
part of Barclays Global and Retail Commercial Banking division,
is a leading global payment business which helps consumers, retailers
and businesses to make and accept payments flexibly, and to access
short-term credit when needed.
The
company is one of the pioneers of new forms of credit
card payments and is at the forefront of developing viable
contactless and mobile payment schemes for today and cutting edge
forms of payment for the future. It also issues credit and charge
cards to corporate customers and the UK Government. Barclaycard
partners with a wide range of organisations across the globe to
offer their customers or members payment options and credit.
In
addition to the UK, Barclaycard operates in the United States,
Europe, Africa and the Middle and Far East.
Barclaycard PR contact:
Andrew Bond
Barclaycard Press Office
Barclaycard
1234 Pavilion Drive
Northampton
NN4 7SG
01604 251229
http://www.barclaycard.co.uk/
2025
