Delay repay on work expensed train travel - do you fess up?

[JCconvert]

We were delayed on a work journey by 90 mins earlier in the week so can claim the whole cost of the ticket back. The original payment has already been reimbursed by work.

Do you own up and offer to repay it, or not? There's nothing in our policies to state either way.

Did the delay cause you to miss 90 minutes of work time, or get home 90mins late?
I think the general consensus on these things is that the reimbursement is for the inconvenience, so you are owed it if it meant you were home 90 mins late. But if the delay just caused you to miss working hours, I’d probably offer to repay.

I'd keep it I think. The way I see it, the refund is for the inconvenience caused to you.

It’s for the inconvenience which you experienced, it’s yours.

At my work we reclaim it and donate the money to charity

If she missed working hours she had to make up- the money is even more reasonably hers for the inconvenience!

It was arrival for 12 so we missed the lunch buffet and first 30 minutes of presentation. So no significant inconvenience to us personally, apart from having to buy lunch (which we'll expense anyway).

I wouldn’t bother claiming the refund. Work have paid for the ticket & will pay for lunch, so you are not out of pocket and it was only work that you missed.

I would feel uncomfortable keeping any money refunded but trying to pay it back to the company will be an administrative nightmare.

Definitely reclaim it! The train lines charge a fortune so you deserve the refund.

I would absolutely keep it personally but offering to donate it to charity is a good back up if you feel uncomfortable.

Many companies have a policy. To protect you then you should ask for one.
We once got £3k in a month
running about £500 now but sadly these days I own the company (still have a policy)

We are allowed to claim it- it is compensarion for the inconvenience which includes being stuck in a cramped, overly bright tin can for longer than was needed.

Whatever you do with the money, you should definitely claim it. The data that these companies derive from repay claims will very likely feed in to their efforts to minimise disruption in future (ie if it's costing them a fortune, they are more likely to work out how to minimise disruption), plus these figures are publicly available and comparable to other train companies, and may feed in to their chances of success in getting their contracts renewed.

Had the same situation and I told them. They said I had to pay it back but it went back and forwards between HR and finance and as it was a relatively small amount, nobody did anything about it.

We have a policy that says it's the company's. This annoys me because, as others have said, it may be me who was inconvenienced (eg, delayed getting home). I think the company see it as a refund for a service they paid for, so it's theirs (which is also a valid point).

We don't have a policy (I've checked), but I claim it if I'm delayed - if the only inconvenience is that I'm late to wherever I'm going and missing work time (which I don't need to make up as I'm often working on the train anyway) then I donate to a charity of my choosing, if I'm late getting home then I'm more inclined to keep it. From discussions with colleagues that's what most seem to do.

It specifically says in our policy that we can keep it. I think that's reasonable as the person travelling is the person inconvenienced, especially if it's the homeward leg of the journey. Getting home at midnight because your train was cancelled is stressful and a pain for you, but doesn't impact your employer.

I'd ask at work.

I think they have a claim to it (although in that case they should do the admin of making the claim).

Or at least ask the other people you work with what they're doing about it.

Someone I know has this dilemma as an interview question for a senior position, the expected answer was apparently that you wouldnt keep it for yourself and I guess you'd have been marked down if you said you would

Claim and use the donate to charity option

I used work for one of the utilities only had one manager (arsehole) saying we should pay it back
hilariously there was no facility to enable paying it back kindly he did offer to sort it if I gave him the cash said it’d been paid into my bank and I would transfer it into work account if never gave me the details surprisingly never heard anything
every other manager told me to keep it

We're allowed to claim and keep it because the individual suffers the inconvenience.

You need to check what the policy is. Not worth losing your job over such a small amount of money.

I always kept it. Just like back in the day we had tesco clubcard points on fuel bought for work. If I was consistently late due to delays, it would be me that bore the brunt of any warnings had I had any. It is your reputation that might be at risk for turning up late and you that had to go and buy your lunch after missing the one provided.

Yes, always. I work for a charity now, and every penny counts, but I did for previous employers too.

If there isn’t a policy then offer to repay. I strongly suspect that if there’s no policy you’ll be told to keep it because the automated expenses mechanism won’t cope (ours wouldn’t!). Brownie points all round.

If you booked and paid for it yourself, then claimed it back from work after, you keep the refund back to your original personal card.

If you booked it through work, and work paid for it the refund goes straight back to the business credit card or whatever and work gets it.

Anything else too complicated.