AIBU to find this bizarre?

[Magicmumma]

Hi all,

I’m asking this on behalf of my DS.

DS is 18 and has a part time job at Tesco alongside his studies. He was recently at another store during one of his contracted shifts as part of compulsory training .

He has tried to claim mileage but Tesco won’t reimburse mileage unless the claimant can provide a fuel receipt.

I think this is bizarre considering not everybody will need to fill up they car after their commute to and from another store, DS certainly didn’t. Basically they’re saying without a receipt they can’t verify he actually worked in another store that specific day.

But, how can that be so? A fuel receipt only proves how much fuel was put in and how much it cost as well.

Considering mileage is paid per mile and not per litre of fuel, can they really refuse him his mileage?

Surely the fact he worked in another store is recorded on a computer system which should be enough proof he’s not just claiming mileage for the sake of it?

Am I right to to find this ridiculous?

Of course he doesn't need a receipt. He can claim mileage from his normal place of work to the other store and back.

I have never needed a receipt for mileage, usually because I'm only going 10 miles or so!

Tell them the miles and tell them he wants it back.

Thank you all for your replies and your experiences.

ds’ manager rang him and said he’d be lucky if he gets paid any mileage because his Saturday shift is 8 hours and the training session was only for 6 hours so they were all allowed to go home early!!

Is this right?

ds’ manager rang him and said he’d be lucky if he gets paid any mileage because his Saturday shift is 8 hours and the training session was only for 6 hours so they were all allowed to go home early!!

No of course it isn't.
Manager is fobbing off because they don't want to do the work of sorting out a claim, or more likely, finding out what the process for sorting that claim is.

Expenses claims are rules-based, there is no way Finance would approve of arbitrary time vs: mileage swaps like this, & Manager will not actually have the authority to offer such.

I don’t understand why PPs are saying you just provide a fuel receipt for tax purposes. That’s simply not the case. You should keep a mileage log (as there are two mileage rates paid depending on whether you’re under or over 10,000 business miles in a tax year) which your employer can ask for sight of.

He’s not claiming for a whole tank of fuel, he’s claiming for the number of additional miles he travelled. I’ve worked for high street banks, the civil service and a charity and I’ve never heard such nonsense. Of course they know he was there, there will be a record of who attended the training session and it was a mandatory session they arranged. I fail to see what the problem is.

I just hope he doesn’t lose his temper and curse at his manager

I don’t supply a receipt for mileage. Never have done.

I supply a receipt if I have used a hire car as I have to return it with a full tank.

That being said, I also never tried claiming mileage for working in a different store when I worked retail.

At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what other people’s employers or companies do - if your son wants to claim his mileage (which of course he should), then he needs to provide the information they request.
He’s maybe missed out this time, but he’ll know for the future.
Really bad idea to suggest he tells them he won’t go to any other branch for training btw...

They’ll need it for accounts. Just take in a receipt next time he fills up his car? Problem solved.

Usually the receipt needs to be dated before the journey.

@magicmumma do you / your DS have an old recipe you could use? If not, if you paid for fuel recently using reward card (Nectar / Clubcard etc) then the store should be able to trace the payment and give you a duplicate receipt.

Very standard for any car expenses claim. You’d provide a bus ticket/train ticket/taxi receipt too.

I just hope he doesn’t lose his temper and curse at his manager

Really?
It will be instructional for him if he does - he'll be fired instantly, & have to do without money, let alone a few milesworth of expenses cash, until he finds another job.

But surely it would be fraud to use a receipt that is not his own?

Surely it is fraud To use another persons fuel receipt? Again that goes against the point of what they want, how would somebody else’s fuel receipt prove anything?

You’d have to provide one anywhere else it’s needed did accounting purposes
rubbish - HMRC allows mileage to be paid up to 45p per mile (there's a max mileage of 10k per annum at that rate. it's a lower rate for additional miles)
however you need to look at the contract of employment and/or relevant travel policy to see what can be claimed.

a fuel receipt is bonkers - you could theoretically fill the tank, but only do a two mile journey.

@messolini9 I know that’s why I don’t want him to do that. He has a tendency to get really aggressive if something has massively pissed him off

@Magicmumma

Businesses can claim mileage paid to others with evidence of the journey taken provided it is along the lines of the "official" [AA?] rate of - I think - 45p/mile.

I imagine that someone has got the wrong end of the stick here. I cannot conceive for example that if it is a 10-mile journey they expect DS to put in a small amount of petrol for his £8 odd. I would guess that someone petty wants to see that he did actually travel by car and not share with 4 others all claiming or on the bus! If he needs to use car for business use for which he is paid mileage [i e between employers sites] he will need business insurance [!] and if he drives to his work then he will need the appropriate ["commuting"] insurance

How far did he have to travel for the extra training?

I have never needed a receipt for mileage, usually because I'm only going 10 miles or so

Do you work for Tesco? @imwellardme

I both claim and approve expenses on a very regular basis. No receipts ever required for claiming mileage.

@ChickenNugget86 30 miles including the journey to and from. That is from his base store to the store he was working in for the day.

I think there’s some confusion over providing receipts! You claim the mileage you’ve done, but you need a receipt to show the fuel you’ve put in. You don’t claim that whole receipt, you just claim the mileage you actually used out of that tank. I don’t understand what people are finding difficult to grasp about that

I both claim and approve expenses on a very regular basis. No receipts ever required for claiming mileage.

Do you work for Tesco? @Ipadannie?

I have worked for 4 companies over 15 years and done mileage for all of them. 2 (large, multinational) companies required receipts for mileage. 2 (small, local) companies did not require receipts for mileage.

It doesn't matter what your company does, it matters what Tesco's policy is, and it isn't unusual for companies to ask for receipts for fuel.

No but I work for a large multi site organisation with thousands of staff.

It’s been standard to attach any petrol receipt for any amount to each expense claim where I’ve worked. In finance we used to save our spare ones for when people forgot.

I’ve given friends a receipt before and they’ve given me their receipts, they just need a receipt so they can tick a box, they’re not going to be checking card numbers or CCTV to see who actually paid for the fuel.