Will I be sacked?

[Issueatwork]

Been at current job coming up two years. Was entirely new to me when I began and training wasn’t the best due to lockdown wfh etc. Work in the finance department for a large healthcare company, for example Bupa. (Isn’t Bupa but is a good comparison without outing).
Its my job to claim money back from the NHS for something. I didn’t do it properly and the claim was rejected. At the time I should have picked this up but didn’t and now it is out of the timeframe and the NHS won’t budge. It shouldn’t have taken me all of this time to pick this up and the amount is £130k. Not doing it correctly at the time I probably could have got away with, but two years into the role I should’ve picked this up earlier and now need to explain myself. I’m a gonner aren’t I.

Hard to tell. Everyone makes mistakes. Without knowing what systems and controls are in place and if you didn't follow procedure/checklist etc it's impossible to say if this is a normal occurance with a procedure for rectifying the mistake or if you've massively cocked up.

Nobody knows.
Your best option is to come clean as soon as possible and suggest solutions if you haven’t already.
You have been there 2 years so have legal protection but if they can class it as Gross Misconduct then they can just fire you. Alternatively they could manage you out.
I hope it all turns out ok but it’s a lot of money to lose so realistically you could be sacked unfortunately

No advice, just sorry you’re going through this. Everyone makes mistakes. Be upfront and own your part.

Oh no! Come clean ASAP, but I think you need to prepare for the fact that you might be in trouble...

I haven’t been there for two years, just coming up to it so no protections!
There are definitely processes in place to check this kind of stuff, I have defences of a high workload etc that they know about but nothing else really. I should have noticed and actioned this sooner. It’s been flagged higher up and I’ve been asked to provide an update my COP today. I’m so angry at myself.

Agree with PP. in the better places I’ve worked, there would be an After Action investigation to understand why procedures and review processes failed to pick up the problem.

if it was found you acted without due care or integrity (eg you assured your manager you’d checked and followed up and had done all the steps, whereas in fact you hadn’t) yes it would be a problem

if it was found that you followed the proper process but there was poor training, an ineffective procedure for managing the reclaims, reconciling the amounts expected, and ineffective supervision etc then it would be handled differently

if you are generally known to be competent and careful then this would feed into the review also.

in reality what does sacking you achieve? The money is gone; then they just train someone else badly and the problem recurs.

Mistakes happen; finance management is all about managing the risk of human or system error and how much is the organisation willing to invest in managing the risk.

Im sure you feel sick to the stomach about it, but hold tight. Be honest, be willing to accept where you need to learn and improve, and be constructive pointing out how the error could be avoided in future. Good luck.

Sorry this has happened to you OP. One way to look at it is that you'll never make the same mistake again and they've just spent £130K training you so would be silly to waste that money by letting you go.

Hope it all works out - as per PP, honesty is the best policy here, not least because the sooner you come clean about it the sooner you'll know what the outcome is and won't be worrying about something that may not happen.