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?

I'm not you and I'm not in possession of the full details so I can't say what I think you should do.

I can say that if I realised I'd been using an imperfect system for submitting my expenses and got caught out two weeks before I was due to leave then I'd be keeping my head down about it.

@letmechangetheatmosphere even if it seemed your manager was aware?

My friend is a HR manager and said this wouldn’t be a big deal in her organisation…

Why are you asking on here if you have a HR manager telling you it's not a problem? . As if...

@Johnnysgirl still good to get different opinions, some organisations may work differently to others. She works for a college and I don’t.

@wonderingwanderer2 in the nhs it would be classed as fraud but you don't want to hear that so it'll all be fine

People are being ridiculously overdramatic on here.

As if one small mistake on expenses is fraud 🙄

It’s her “friend” who has only heard the OzP’s version.

not exactly the most objective of people

Exactly it wouldn’t

but given the op admits her way of doing expenses is not ideal and that she should change the way she does it - if it isn’t the first, then it would well be indicative of a manager who has had suspicions for some time.

And actually “small” mistakes in fraud are often the gateway to revealing much bigger fraud.

But they could contact your new employer

thrpe OP said she always completes mileage sheets before she sets off and changes accordingly. It is a pattern which could be contrued as intent to fraud. She forgot to cover her transgression this time and it was noted,

i too work in the NHS, and if your manager doesn't give a 'shiny shite' about expenses claims, then we know part of the reason it is in such a financial mess.
Attitude such as yours, this 'entitlement' to a pen here, a mileage claim there, is abuse of tax payers money.

it's not the amount, it's the principle

I don’t think your manager would be pleased with you telling people she doesn’t give a “shiny shite” about any expense claim you put in

tbh OP they’re prob going to audit your previous claims and this one too
itd just the way it goes. You put in a wrong claim for money which your manager had to pull you up on. It’s obvious they’re a bit untrusting of your claims now, naturally.

nHS worker, so it's your national insurance contributions paying OPs wage and mileage claims
So no, not dramatic. Except for those who don't pay NI or think that trying to claim money for something not done is ok

The fact that you’re considering not pursuing it implies you know you’ve done this before

Except it wouldn't....be fraud 🙄....no one would give a shiny shite

Yes.

i suspect the op knows it would be like opening a Pandora’s box and would lead to a full Audit of her expenses

what do you do as work @kitcat15 or at least the industry you work in?

Shit
Just seen you work for the nhs

i find it so depressing that someone working for the nhs has this opinion presumably based on experience. So different to private sector, where potential misallocation of money / fraud / unintentional mistake is genuinely at least lightly explored. But it would seem “no one” gives a “shiny shit” in the nhs according to @kitcat15

Fraud requires dishonesty! Genuine mistake is not fraud.

It is dramatic because it was a mistake. Not intentional. OP wasn't 'trying to claim for something they hadn't done', they made a mistake which they rectified as soon as it was pointed out.

As someone who has given references in the past, the absolute most they could say at the moment is that OP forgot to take off a meeting that changed to online. I very much doubt they will do that.

If an investigation went ahead and found more discrepancies and proved the OP was acting fraudulently, then things might be different.

Well, no, it isn't. You said "The employer does not have to prove intent or fraud."

No, it wouldn't automatically be classed as fraud in the NHS.