Manager has refused mileage claim - AIBU?

[wonderingwanderer2]

I work in the community and so submit my mileage expenses each month. I tend to write my visits in before I do them otherwise I worry I will forget - this is clearly not a good strategy due to what has happened below and I will now do them retrospectively.

I submitted my July mileage and my manager rejected it on the basis that there was one entry that was incorrect - a face-to-face visit had been changed to an online one and I had forgotten to delete the entry - she had seen that it was a Teams meeting in my diary. I apologised and deleted the entry and resubmitted it. I have only just noticed that the mileage for the whole month (a substantial amount) has been rejected again.

Is she allowed to do this? Obviously I was at fault for not deleting the other entry when the meeting was changed to an online one, but AIBU to think she's wrong to not pay my mileage for the rest of the month now the incorrect entry has been deleted? How should I raise this with her?

@Quveas i am leaving very soon anyway so it wouldn’t really be in their interests to dismiss me

No, you would not be told if you were being audited. Misspoken words could result in a liability or tip you off giving you an oppertunity to interfere with any investigation.
The fact that you are leaving makes any audit more urgent as the company would see it as leaving them a small window to recover overpayments.
Plus if you work in a job where you have access to clients homes or workplaces they would also be concerned if they offered an character reference to your new employer.

A pattern of behaviour could be used to estabilshed intent so that is why a single instance can trigger an audit and a delay in payment.
More likely the OP the processing missed cut off.

Absolutely email the manager or payroll and ask why it has been rejected. It is likely that your claims are being reviewed to check it was a one off mistake and not systematic fraud. I checked an employee's back claims once as I noticed she'd claimed mileage for a trip when she was off sick and the audit of her claims did in fact reveal that she had been ripping off the company for months claiming for cancelled meetings, claiming double or triple distance, meetings while on hols or sick, claiming when she'd shared someone else's car and her manager had been signing off without checking anything. She was sacked and the manager was given a warning. This is why companies check, an honest mistake will be revealed to be an honest mistake and be fine.

It's quite usual to "shell out" for fuel costs upfront. I've claimed mileage in my last 4 jobs over 20 years and never been able to claim mileage in advance. We claim at the end of the month.

Just contact your manager on Monday and ask for the reason the claim was rejected so you correct any errors. If she rejected it incorrectly then you can then just resubmit, or if there is an error you can correct it.
Don’t overthink it.

No, it wasn't fraudulent. To constitute fraud, it would have to be intentional.

No, it is you who are making up the facts. The only information we have is that it was an inadvertent error. You are the one who has suddenly decided that OP is lying.

Yes, the employer needs to check, as normal good audit practice. But that does not mean that OP has committed fraud.

You are the one who has suddenly decided that OP is lying.

it does rather look like her manager also suspects so too!

Yes, the employer needs to check, as normal good audit practice

op should brace herself for a full audit of all her previous expenses, which may well stop her in her tracks! 😂

Talk to your manager, not email, Teams message or text message. Far more chance of it being resolved quickly.

I have been very clear that I am not saying that. The only fact available is that the OP claimed a payment for mileage they did not do. I have been very clear that I am not saying they did (or did not) do that intentionally. I have never accused the OP of lying. I have not implied that. I have clearly set out the legal position in respect of employment. The employer does not have to prove intent or fraud. That is a fact. They only have to prove that the employee claimed a payment to which they had no right.

It rather depends what the employer wants to do, though, doesn't it, @Quveas ? If they just want to disallow such claims, fine. If they want the employee charged with fraud, they will need solid evidence of intent, beyond reasonable doubt. If they want to sack her, they will need evidence of intent on a balance of probabilities. But simply establishing that she did something which is explicable as a one-off mistake won't get the employer far in terms of justifying either course of action.

That entirely depends on them though. I am only pointing out the options available, not whether they will exercise them or not. If they were to find some more errors, they may disagree with you on what is in their best interests. You'd equally think that it was odd that a manager "happened" to notice that your claim and your diary didn't match - coincidence perhaps? Where I work we have to "spot check" 1 in 10 claims submitted to us, so perhaps it was just serendipity that yours was picked. It's not that I don't believe you just made a mistake - which some people here seem to think is the case if anyone dares to disagree with their opinion - but that the employer doesn't have to see things the same way anyone here does. And employment law has a much lower bar to prove than criminal law.

I believe that is exactly what I said.

She clearly thinks you're taking the piss, and have only been discovered once.
Who writes their mileage in advance?

Do you work for an NHS Community trust? Is it the sel system?
If so, you're only allowed to submit once /twice a month. You may have to wait until 1st Sept to submit again.
I'm quite amazed that your manager has enough time to check all your journeys against your diary. Wow! She must have a lot of time on her hands.

Are you for fucking real??
I don’t for one second think my manager ever checks my mileage….she often approves it seconds after I submit it….she wouldn’t give a shiny shite about an error like OPs….at the end of the day I always exceed my mileage claims with road works…I’m NHS….and this has always been the case for the 25 years I’ve worked in the community….fucking ridiculous post🙄

That doesn’t follow at all.

Quite apart from anything else, how can you know what your mileage will be before you have made the journey? Even regular journeys can unexpectedly deviate from the planned route and so vary from the normal mileage

surely in that instance the journey would be longer?

In the real world people make mistakes and not everyone assumes everyone is trying to defraud them all of the time. It must be exhausting being a manager who has no trust in their staff. Why did you recruit them if you don't trust them?

I had an argument years ago with my boss who said I should have gone on the motorway instead of the A road which would have been 2 miles less. I more or less told him to approve the claim or else. Tosser.

Actually you probably should claim in advance so you are not out of pocket having to buy petrol before you've been given the money but of course it's not ideal if a meeting is cancelled or changes to remote after you've claimed.

I don't know why employers think their employees should give them interest free loans.

Fortunately I don't have to drive for work, and very rarely incur any sort of expense for my employers - in my experience most employers do all they can to wriggle out of paying claims, but you make one mistake and it must be fraud. Yeah right.

I more or less told him to approve the claim or else. Tosser.
Or else what?

i can’t believe how many people are accusing me of fraud for one mistake.

@gatehouseoffleet yes often the journeys are longer due to roadworks, road closures etc but I think the way my manager checks mileage to know we’re claiming the right amount is to do it by Google maps, otherwise surely I could do a journey that was 1 mile according to Google maps but claim it was 3 miles because of traffic or something even if it wasn’t? Now that would be fraudulent!

Op
The facts that we can be sure of as posters who don’t know you from Adam are….

YOU say that you should have changed the way you did your expenses

YOU made a mistake

Your manager has taken not accepted your other expenses. Presumably she wants to do some digging.

so based on the facts, it’s not unreasonable to presume fraud, as clearly your manager - you does know you, may suspect

Yes I’m curious too!