What's your work expenses policy like?

[ShadowPuppets]

Idly musing. I went on a work trip the other day and have just been sorting the receipts. I had to eat dinner solo one evening and while it was at an affordable place (Pizza Express - because I am a wuss about finding a familiar place if I'm on my own 🙈) I did have a glass of wine with it and I'm wondering whether to a) suck it up and pay the whole thing myself, b) make it clear I'm only expecting repayment of the food, or c) just send it in and see what happens. Will probably do the latter, the least they can do is reject and I can ask about option b! I have friends who work in Finance who would have probably had substantially more than 1 glass of wine and their Accounts team wouldn't bat an eyelid 😂The glass of wine was sorely needed after a full day running client workshops. I wouldn't have thought twice about having dinner with a client and having one glass of wine, just feels a bit funny because I was on my own?

I also had to get a taxi to the station because I had a 20kg suitcase full of marketing materials that I didn't fancy dragging 1.5 miles at 6am, but again who knows how that'll be viewed!

Relatively new job so not sure how these things are viewed. Marketing/Comms if that's relevant. It made me wonder, what's everyone else's policies like? My perception would be that 3rd and public sector would be crazily stingy but maybe you work for an international bank who refuses to let you take a bus for anything less than 3 miles and make your own sandwiches for dinner in a Travelodge?

Civil service- set daily maximum in the uk. No alcohol allowed- I just cross it off the bill when I'm putting my receipts in. Daily allowance, amount dependent on location, for travel abroad- get it in advance, can only claim for transport on return.

Same with ours. You are expected to exercise sensible judgement. Receipts are approved by line managers so abuse of the policy like buying a bag of crisps for 'dinner' to leave the rest of the allowance free for alcohol wouldn't be tolerated, but a glass of wine with your meal would be absolutely fine.

Anywhere I've worked a glass or two of wine with dinner is fine, as long as it's not something super expensive.

Current place of work doesn't have a proper expense policy either which I find stressful. There's no guidelines on hotel costs or type, or food or anything. Sometimes limits can be a bit awkward to work with, but at least you know what's acceptable!

Public sector but travel a lot. The allowances are really out of date, about £20 for dinner, £6 for lunch. We can’t claim for any alcohol.

A colleague of mine submitted her receipt without taking the glass of wine off and it was rejected. This is the NHS though.

National charity. £10 each for breakfast and lunch. £20 dinner plus one alcoholic drink.

Breakfast we usually get with accommodation so the £6 is defunct. Lunch usually a supermarket meal deal. Main course with glass wine is possible for £25! Particularly if we're in a premier inn or similar with attached restaurant.

University expenses -£25 per day all in. That’s it. No alcohol allowed and no higher expenses if in London. You can barely get a sandwich and a drink for that! Our maximum hotel allowance is a joke too, and again no regard for London prices. We all end up paying out of pocket or staying over the shop at Mrs Miggins Pie shop!

we get a daily allowance.
plus modest overnight allowance (enough for chain budget hotel incl breakfast). plus transport allowance based on standard rail fare.

sooo much easier than faffing about with receipts.
we can book ourselves via a travel office that has a contract with work (sometimes good discount) or we can book ourselves.

staying over the shop at Mrs Miggins Pie shop!

😂

Public sector and we have very fixed rules and amounts. It’s isn’t always fair though - you have a daily allowance (or fixed amounts for shorter periods of time) and if you have hotel breakfast provided, and a sandwich lunch, it’s plenty for dinner. But sometimes you have neither of these, and are in London, in which case you’d be very hard pressed to find cheap enough meals. My team are not paid well and I don’t think they should have to pay themselves to go to work meetings on top of the overall bad pay. No one expects a swish meal out, but neither should they be out of pocket.

For example being away from the office for 9 hours would be £5 IIRC so hard to get a lunch and a hot drink unless you are somewhere a bit cheaper. And travelling long distances by train means paying station / train prices. Recently we all went to a cheap supermarket cafe for our lunch and hot drink and that was a bargain.

Schools cannot pay for any alcohol. They have to declare annually. If they do it gets reported to the secretary of state.

Crazy when you think what goes on in no 10.

Defo claim it

I work for the government so we get £21 whole day allowance if staying away from home that has to cover lunch dinner and all soft drinks, breakfast you're expected to have at home or at the hotel (premier Inn at best) . Not allowed to claim for any alcohol.
Used to work in the private sector some years ago and allowance for dinner alone was £30 and alcohol was fine, and that's when £30 would go a lot further than today

We have a policy with a set amount for each meal, and specific circs that allow it to be expensed (e.g. Evening meal only if arriving home after Xpm. Lunch only if not leaving from home that day)

No alcohol allowed at all. I have had a glass of wine with dinner, but just circled the food and soft drinks on the receipt before sending it in so it was obvious I wasn't claiming for the booze.

We would pay all that, and more than 1 glass of wine. I'm very wary of getting into conversation about what is a reasonable amount to drink because frankly it's an HR disaster waiting to happen. If someone has a lot to drink we'll pay it and then tell them that's too much and stick to 2 or 3 in future.

The variation on this is fascinating!

An old job was more generous on the amount, flat rate for a whole day, spend how you wish. I knew someone who used to take sandwiches for lunch, pot noodle for dinner, and spend the whole allowance on alcohol. Always paid out without question. Bonkers.

I work for myself so my company’s expenses policy is very generous!

Mine is set to allow reasonable expenditure (public sector), I tried to adopt a larger department's set scales a few years ago and it was kicked out on the basis that we employ reasonable people who we trust.

I've never known it abused.

I probably wouldn't claim for wine personally if it was just me eating alone.

That’s the way to do it 😁

UndercoverCop · Today 21:51
I work for the government so we get £21 whole day allowance if staying away from home that has to cover lunch dinner and all soft drinks, breakfast you're expected to have at home or at the hotel (premier Inn at best) . Not allowed to claim for any alcohol.
Used to work in the private sector some years ago and allowance for dinner alone was £30 and alcohol was fine, and that's when £30 would go a lot further than today.

Apologies just checked and the 24 hour ceiling has been increased to £25 not £21, I used to travel for work overnight a lot, I don't anymore. That's still to cover everything in a 24 hour period food and drink wise, and no alcohol (unless you're an MP of course).
Hotel rates are interesting and unrealistic
9.1 Hotel rates
Location Upper limit
London (bed and breakfast) £130
Bristol £100
Warrington £90
Reading £85
All other UK locations £75

Our policy is weird in that there is effectively a minimum rather than a maximum.

Hotels and travel are centrally booked and must be “in policy” which is invariably three to five times the price of what I would book myself.

I also get in trouble for getting a sandwich meal deal from M&S rather than a meal in a restaurant.

I don’t like the excess really. And because I have to pay it and then claim it back I prefer to keep the cost down.

@youveturnedupwelldone really?? I thought no one in the CS could claim back alcohol? I will need to go find our policy!

NHS £5 for lunch £15 for dinner. That's the limit. I obviously subsidise every day I'm working away 😏