Can your employer MAKE you pay for your work expenses up front?

[elliott]

Am having a long runnign debate with dh about this.
As part of our 'cutting back' campaign I have realised that between us we can easily be carrying several £100's of work expenses on our own accounts at any one time - travel expenses and hotel bills mainly. I think it is wrong that our employers expect us to stump up for these up front and claim back later (often much later, after our credit card bills have been paid).
I have taken on my employer and (I think) sorted it out. DH claims that he cannot get his employer to pay for his hotel bill for him (they book and pay for travel so that's not an issue). Basically the system is as I ahve described it.
I know, of course, that the employer COULD arrange things differently as he has had different arrangements with previous employers (e.g. company credit card, or the company directly booking and paying for the hotel)
What I'd like to know is whether there is any entitlement to this? Or do we just have to accept that dh has to sub his employer to the tune of 10-20% of his salary every month?

In the past I've told the company I don't have enought limit on my credit card to pay for work expenses and they arranged a company card. I would never use a personal card for business, you're stuck with the interest if they pay you late or not at all.

Hmm, but what if everyone else does it without arguing? And, he can't say he hasn't got enough credit card limit as it clearly isn't true. I guess he could say he's giving up his credit card. Can he insist they give him a company cc if no one esle has them?

There's no legal entitlement to expenses paid upfront, no. It's all about what's in the contract, and it's fairly common to have to fork out then claim back, although annoying especially if it's regular or large amounts obviously.

But if your DH is using hotels every month, and the employer can manage to pre book and pre pay travel, it sounds like something needs to be sorted if possible. Do they always use the same hotel or chain? Could an account be set up? Does anyone have company credit cards. If some people do there's often no reason those card numbers can't be used for this type of thing even though the person using the booking doesn't have a card.

Do his colleagues have a similar problem? Pressure of a group more effective than one person moaning and all that.

thanks fbb. I do feel that it is an unreasonable expectation tbh. If we didn't have my income we would certainly end up paying credit card interest on the expenses. I am sure we are out of pocket anyway through having to maintain a larger cushion in our current account.

I will ask if anyone has a company cc. The answer may be no. The hotels are not always predictable, sometimes abroad. It must affect his colleagues too but its that old thing of not wanting to talk about your finances. I have to say I have had some funny reactions trying to sort it with my employers - you feel like you are being tight by saying you can't afford to sub employers!

One month we had in excess of £800 of expenses goign out - that's really quite a high % of our income. Surely that can't be ok?

Well, no it's not ok, but assuming that's the procedure where he works, there's nothing illegal about it.

He could be quite firm about it, either say he is getting rid of his credit card so will need them to make alternative arrangements, or he could offer the option of claiming interest incurred as part of his expenses as well as the actual costs.

I feel for ya elliott. I have to pay for expenses up front and like you can be owed 100s at any one time. They haven't paid me today for expenses incurred over 8 weeks ago, due to a minor error on my part, I'll admit.
However, they who hold the purse strings, call the tune or whatever. Hope it works out for you.

the interest thing is tricky, unless he takes out a separate cc just for work - as if we don't pay off in full (which I always always do) we would get charged interest on all of it, not just the work expenses.
I could ask him to tell them he is cutting up his credit card. Might not work though!
I have to say Ireally don't undersatnd why they can't book hotels themselves. They do have crap admin support though.

Also feel for you - DH is regularly owed several hundred in expenses, and it can impact on our budgeting. Mine tend to be around the £50 mark, so not quite so challenging!

One thing that has worried me is, do you end up paying tax on your claimed expenses? Ours are just added on to our payslips - surely that means you are paying expenses out of taxed income, then claiming back that amount and paying tax on it again?

No, when they come through on the payslips, they are untaxed (admin may be bad, but I think payroll is competent!)

It was never really an issue until recently when for some reason we have been close to overdrawn on a number of months - and then I started getting pretty annoyed about it!

no - you don't pay tax on your claimed expenses.

It isn't illegal to ask you to do it, but assuming that it isn't part of his contract he doesn't have to do it either. He just has to tell them that he won't be doing it anymore and they will have to make alternative arrangements for these payments (be it booking in advance, company credit card, cash subs, whatever).
Easier said than done though.

My DH works away a lot and he is sometimes owed £1000s of pounds in expenses. he does have a company cc, but it's amex so it has to be paid off in full every month.

Hos work are crap at payong expnses and keep losing receipts even though they've been sent registered delivery.

It leaves us with major cashflow issues sometimes which drives me crackers!!!

My company expects us to pay upfront, but if the expenses claim goes in quickly and they fail to pay up before the credit card has to be paid, they pay the interest.

Personally I don't mind using my own card because I get the Airmiles on it, but I can see it could be a big issue if the company doesn't stump up in time and you're spending a lot.

Hmm my work do this and it's so rubbish.

When I did a lot of travel before DS, I specifically used one credit card for work and one for home stuff. I guess I was lucky that I had two credit cards but it did help when claiming interest etc and also meant I could give copies of my statements without having to cross out any personal expenses. DH used to crack up about the whole situation.

The only thing to do in this situation is claim the expenses the second you get back so that they can't say you dilly-dallied about putting the request in.

I feel your pain though - especially in current climate/near Christmas.