Expenses - please help

[Threelittleducks]

Dh works for a mental health charity full time. He is contracted to 40 hours a week and this is flexible with regards to start/end times.

Recently he has been doing a lot of training for which the company expect him to pay for his transport (very often very expensive train journeys) on the day and they won't reimburse him until the next month for all travel incurred, so very often we are losing £100 a month on travel for him - money we can ill-afford. We do get it back the next onth, but often the training is at the end of the month and it's getting to the stage now where he won't pay the council tax because he knows he has this travel money to spend!

DH is a nice kinda guy - never one to rock the boat and even though we have had to borrow money off several people to cover the travel this month he still won't say anything. He claims if he is skint and tells the company then they will give him a loan of £50 which he would have to pay back when he leaves the company (which I don't understand as they pay for the transport in the end when they reimburse him - therefore they pay for the train ticket anyway? It makes no sense to me).

I am hugely pg and prob pretty hormonal(so please be kind) but it's starting to piss me off - I think dh should contact his head office and at least ask for the rules to be changed and explain the situation the company are putting us in. It makes more sense - they book the tickets in advance for the training that they know has to be done - advance tickets mean that they save money rather than reimbursing dh for his 'on the day' more expensive tickets, plus when it comes down to paying a bill or buying food (yes this happened at the weekend!!) dh won't have to keep this money for travel or borrow off others. (They also expected him to pay for a service user to go with him this time - yep that's another £30 for trains for some guy - we are basically, as a family, taking the financial burden for this company by paying for their service users to go with dh).He did say he couldn't afford to do this, so company paid for the guys ticket there and then - why couldn't they do this for dh?

AIBU to think that the company should take responsibility for the travel that they are supposed to reimburse?

He also has to take service users to activities and pay for them himself until he is reimbursed a month later. I have no idea how much is spent on this per week, but it's getting to the stage where he has stopped telling me because he knows I have issues with it. I wouldn't mind if it was the end of the week they got their expenses back, or on the day! But it really does mount up by the end of the month - and he never seems to know for sure when he is getting it back.
He doesn't get paid a lot for what he does and we really do struggle sometimes so that his 'service users' can go for a bloody game of snooker or a tai chi class!

I feel like writing to the company myself and explaining what they are doing to us (don't worry I won't, I'm not daft)as I know dh will never say a word and carry on doing the do.

Please tell me I am right in feeling that the company are not altogether right in doing this?

My DH also has this problem - but I think it is universal.

The expenses procedure seems to be intractable. In my case I spoke to the bank and organised a whopping overdraft facility just in case. They were really helpful about it. Its not every or even many months but sometimes loads of things do seem to come together and the reimbursement doesn't arrive until 5 weeks or so later. At one point he tried the American Express charge card option - but he kept forgetting to repay in time and that got a bit expensive. If your DH is more organised that might be an option.

Companies often do expect employees to pay for travel expenses and reclaim, and the speed of repayment doesn't seem out of the ordinary. There is no reason, however, why they shouldn't pay in advance for train tickets - it is easy enough to do on line.

However, they are probably assuming that he is doing it on a credit card, so that the payments do not leave him short of cash. He needs either to get a credit card for this purpose (which I can quite understand that you might prefer not to do) or to talk to whoever is asking him to do the travel, and make it clear that the current system is causing him difficulties. If he doesn't talk to them, how can they possibly know that it is causing him problems?

If it is a regular and increasing part of his job, they may be willing to issue him a corporate credit card, which is for (strictly defined) work use, where the bills go directly to the company and they are responsible for paying them.

Getting him to cover the costs of other people when no such arrangement is in place is taking the piss!

The obvious problem is that your husband can't (or won't) discuss this with his employer - somewhat ironic that he works for a mental health charity yet this issue is causing so much stress. Is there really no one that he is willing to talk this through with? My DH works for himself now but in the past was issued with a 'float' for expenses and a company credit card, but I guess things are much tighter in the current economic climate.

Threelittleducks - I used to travel a lot on business and the system was similar to what your DH does. Putting in receipts and then gettng repaid next month.

However, where expenses were likely to be high, the firm made an advance of money that was then accounted for against receipts put in later. That way the employee effectively got their expenses in advance but still had to 'claim' for them once the trip was over.

I suggest your DH asks for an advance on grounds of hardship and then put in his receipts as usual against that advance.

If it is matter of a few hundred pounds I do not see how it would hurt the charity to pay it to him it in effect 3 weeks early.

Thanks all for making me feel a little less crazy!

I don't mind the advance payment thing really - I have done it for companies I worked for in the past, but the difference was that we were reimbursed on the same day, so were never out of pocket. It just seems so wrong to be out of pocket for so long. Especially when it comes at the detriment of our own bills.

DH is a bit of a pussy when it comes to these things. I will have a chat with him later. The problem is he is always trying to please everyone to the detriment of us. I get the feeling that there is stuff he doesn't tell me - expenses he has had to incur that he won't tell me about.
It's so frustrating! Especially as I know he is just trying really hard to keep all the balls in the air. I feel like some dragon lady for asking him about it, but he keeps me in the dark to keep me happy (ironically). He would tell me that he asked about something, even if he didn't, simply because he hates confrontation!
Just wish I could write and ask them myself - they seem like a reasonable company in other ways. Quite nice really.

I just know if I was working there I would be questioning it fairly loudly. He just won't!
Makes me feel quite out of control (SAHM), like I shouldn't ask questions or rock the boat. I understand it's his work, but when the financial stuff starts to compromise our home life it just hits a nerve.

Really don't want to credit card it - don't trust us with one and definitely don't trust dh with one - he'd be lending money off it to his colleagues or something. He really is too nice for his own good.
Sometimes I want to grab him by the throat and shake him and shout 'MAN UP!' in his face....but that would be VVVVVVVVVVU as he is a model dh in every other way.

It's nice to hear that it's not just us who has the month in lieu thing. However bad it might feel!

It's perfectly normal as everyone has said, although that doesn't make it less irritating!

Changing a policy like that could have fairly significant financial implications for the charity, especially if it's a big one, so don't expect them to do it on the basis of one person complaining that it's inconvenient. Of course there may be a huge number of people saying the same thing which will help.

However most people probably use a credit card or overdraft facility, and if your DH could get a credit card with a fairly low limit for this basis and use it only for expenses and is choosing not to do so, that probably won't increase their sympathy much I'm afraid.