Expenses refused because not requested promptly

stickitupyourjumper

I work for a government department. I have just had a £400+ expenses claim refused because I did not submit it promptly enough.

I was a bit shocked and checked the department policy. There is a clause that's says they reserve the right to refuse an expenses payback if it is not submitted within a month (not submitted promptly enough) without 'good reason'. All of my previous claims from the last year were claimed over a month after and there was never an issue (it was paid straight away). Worst still I was only a week over on this occasion!

I notice in my rejection they included two other issues for me to clarify, which I am easily able to do to show the claims are legitimate. I included all the receipts when I submitted the claim.

I am just really fuming because of it. I go above and beyond for my job and I am currently covering a role in another part of the country (at my own inconvenience) which is naturally generating more expenses claims. It just feels like the government are short for money at the moment, so they have suddenly decided to be more strict in their enforcement of policy or are just trying to throw anything they can at me (and hoping something sticks) to avoid paying me back my money.

MikeJXE

If the terms say you must claim within a month why don't you ? You can't complain because you got it wrong 

MattMattMattUK

stickitupyourjumper said:

I work for a government department. I have just had a £400+ expenses claim refused because I did not submit it promptly enough.

I was a bit shocked and checked the department policy. There is a clause that's says they reserve the right to refuse an expenses payback if it is not submitted within a month (not submitted promptly enough) without 'good reason'. All of my previous claims from the last year were claimed over a month after and there was never an issue (it was paid straight away). Worst still I was only a week over on this occasion!

I notice in my rejection they included two other issues for me to clarify, which I am easily able to do to show the claims are legitimate. I included all the receipts when I submitted the claim.

I am just really fuming because of it. I go above and beyond for my job and I am currently covering a role in another part of the country (at my own inconvenience) which is naturally generating more expenses claims. It just feels like the government are short for money at the moment, so they have suddenly decided to be more strict in their enforcement of policy or are just trying to throw anything they can at me (and hoping something sticks) to avoid paying me back my money.

It is nothing to do with the government not having any money and seems to be entirely related to the expenses submitted both after the deadline and with other issues/queries.

Do you have "good reason" why you took more than a month to submit the expense claim?

Also note this is pretty standard for almost any employer, many will require them to be submitted within seven days and often will also require that expenses are pre-approved as well.

stickitupyourjumper

MikeJXE said:

If the terms say you must claim within a month why don't you ? You can't complain because you got it wrong 

Because it has never been an issue before, not for me and not for the colleagues that I know. It is never enforced, to the point that I was unaware it was even a thing until they enforced it this time.

stickitupyourjumper

MattMattMattUK said:

stickitupyourjumper said:

I work for a government department. I have just had a £400+ expenses claim refused because I did not submit it promptly enough.

I was a bit shocked and checked the department policy. There is a clause that's says they reserve the right to refuse an expenses payback if it is not submitted within a month (not submitted promptly enough) without 'good reason'. All of my previous claims from the last year were claimed over a month after and there was never an issue (it was paid straight away). Worst still I was only a week over on this occasion!

I notice in my rejection they included two other issues for me to clarify, which I am easily able to do to show the claims are legitimate. I included all the receipts when I submitted the claim.

I am just really fuming because of it. I go above and beyond for my job and I am currently covering a role in another part of the country (at my own inconvenience) which is naturally generating more expenses claims. It just feels like the government are short for money at the moment, so they have suddenly decided to be more strict in their enforcement of policy or are just trying to throw anything they can at me (and hoping something sticks) to avoid paying me back my money.

It is nothing to do with the government not having any money and seems to be entirely related to the expenses submitted both after the deadline and with other issues/queries.

Do you have "good reason" why you took more than a month to submit the expense claim?

Also note this is pretty standard for almost any employer, many will require them to be submitted within seven days and often will also require that expenses are pre-approved as well.

Is it normal to be one month? I struggle to understand why the government would need to such prompt expense claims.

In truth I have been snowed under with work and chasing my tail covering the role for which I am claiming expenses for (we are short staffed). Naturally submitting them wasn't a priority above using my working time to get the actual work done...especially as I had no reason to think it would get rejected and no knowledge of the one month limit. This is partly why it feels a little bit like a slap in the face.

I have replied explaining that I had IT issues accessing the expenses payment portal.

Sarahspangles

Are you normally able to submit late but ‘chased’ for expenses at year end?  That’s coming up, and is a really busy time for accounts teams.  Maybe this year yours are preemptively making clear that there are consequences for late submission.  I would ask a manager to intervene this one time but stick within the rules in future.

Wonka_2

stickitupyourjumper said:

MattMattMattUK said:

stickitupyourjumper said:

I work for a government department. I have just had a £400+ expenses claim refused because I did not submit it promptly enough.

I was a bit shocked and checked the department policy. There is a clause that's says they reserve the right to refuse an expenses payback if it is not submitted within a month (not submitted promptly enough) without 'good reason'. All of my previous claims from the last year were claimed over a month after and there was never an issue (it was paid straight away). Worst still I was only a week over on this occasion!

I notice in my rejection they included two other issues for me to clarify, which I am easily able to do to show the claims are legitimate. I included all the receipts when I submitted the claim.

I am just really fuming because of it. I go above and beyond for my job and I am currently covering a role in another part of the country (at my own inconvenience) which is naturally generating more expenses claims. It just feels like the government are short for money at the moment, so they have suddenly decided to be more strict in their enforcement of policy or are just trying to throw anything they can at me (and hoping something sticks) to avoid paying me back my money.

It is nothing to do with the government not having any money and seems to be entirely related to the expenses submitted both after the deadline and with other issues/queries.

Do you have "good reason" why you took more than a month to submit the expense claim?

Also note this is pretty standard for almost any employer, many will require them to be submitted within seven days and often will also require that expenses are pre-approved as well.

Is it normal to be one month? I struggle to understand why the government would need to such prompt expense claims.

In truth I have been snowed under with work and chasing my tail covering the role for which I am claiming expenses for (we are short staffed). Naturally submitting them wasn't a priority above using my working time to get the actual work done...especially as I had no reason to think it would get rejected and no knowledge of the one month limit. This is partly why it feels a little bit like a slap in the face.

I have replied explaining that I had IT issues accessing the expenses payment portal.

For me, in a private sector company, a month is the max, and over the years I've learned that there are various 'tasks' that take precedence over other things, expenses being one of them.

Assuming workload is so high that expenses can't be completed within the timeframe then it should be an escalation to your line manager, before the missed deadline, to either re-allocate work or approve an extension.

You've not helped yourself by now lying that systems access issues caused the delay 

tacpot12

stickitupyourjumper said:

MikeJXE said:

If the terms say you must claim within a month why don't you ? You can't complain because you got it wrong 

Because it has never been an issue before, not for me and not for the colleagues that I know. It is never enforced, to the point that I was unaware it was even a thing until they enforced it this time.

I'm afraid this isn't a reason for them not to reject your expense claim. No doubt someone else in the Finance dept got their butt kicked over the fact they weren't rejecting claims. It's likely to have been a local issue with poor leadership in the Finance dept., not an instruction from on high.  

I do understand your frustration, because no employee should have to subsidise their employer, especially when this employer is the British Government! But you need to accept that these expenses are not going to be paid. This seems perverse when you give so much to your job, but your manager (who presumably knows and appreciates the extra effort you put in) almost certainly has no sway in the Finance dept, so they can't help you. 

My advice would be i) don't get sore about it; your job pays for you to live and this bill will be paid off soon enough ii) take time out of your working day to submit your expenses for the previous month. Even the process of claiming your expenses back is valuable work - you only have to think about how angry you are right now to realise how important it is TO YOUR EMPLOYER that you don't get ripped off, but you have to play your part in this by getting your expenses in in time. iii) don't get sore about it and try to recover the money by over billing - I am sure you could easily do this, but it is beneath you - let the Finance dept. be the petty ones. 

Peter999_2

It is an expensive lesson to learn, but in my experience doing my expenses would always be one of my top priorities during work time.  I never want to give them an excuse not to pay me it   (also, every where I worked it always has to be done within a month or it would be rejected).

However, I also think it is a bit harsh to reject this one out of hand if you have previously submitted them more than a month late before.   You'd have thought they would have approved this time but warned you that in future the claim must be submitted within a month.   

Grumpy_chap

In private companies, time limits on expenses are very common.
Late expenses can be a real issue as the employer may be contractually precluded from claiming from the Client.
That may not apply in your department of the Civil Service, but there is still a need to adopt good accounting practice and be able to accurately report liabilities.  How can that be done if individuals can submit claims late?

The Civil Service apply the same mentality to business providers.  I was working for a company as we came out of COVID and they were late submitting a claim (about £4m) for the effects of COVID delays.  They got time-barred because the part of the Civil Service in question had also made a bid for extra project funding to Central Government to cover the impacts of COVID (£15bn).  The £4m would have been inconsequential extra but, coming after the additional was agreed by the Government, the Civil Service Dept in question had no more money to seek or pass along.

That £4m hurt the supplying business quite hard.

In the same way as the £400 hurts you quite hard.

Where should the line be drawn in considering a late claim?

I am currently working for a private company and the cut off for expenses is strict "by midnight on the day the expense is incurred".  I have never tested what happens if that is missed.

pramsay13

I wouldn't have left it until after a month to submit my expenses claim, but in your situation now I would remind my line manager that there is a bit of give and take to every working relationship and if they want to hard line about the expenses, then you will do the same about other things.
Is the covering of the role elsewhere part of your contract? If not tell them you are looking to return to your usual role. 
Do you finish at your end time on the dot? If not start doing so.
Do you always take your holidays and accrued time? If not start doing so.
And so on.
You will soon find out what they think of you and if they value you as an employee they will backtrack on the expenses.
If not it's probably time to start looking for something else.