Problem with Expenses Claim (petrol)

[Poppy07]

I work as a surveyor and everyone in my office and I claim back our fuel expenses every month. We do this by submitting our fuel receipts and stating our business mileage and personal mileage every month. My colleague is having a few problems with his claim at the moment and I believe that the accounts department are behaving incorrectly. He has submitted his expenses form and divided the cost of the fuel by the mileage done as we all do as we have been told to do it this way. His cost per mile works out at 24p, however our head office has now said in writing that they agree that his fuel is costing him 24p per mile however they are not prepared to pay anymore than 17p per mile! Can they do this? His contract states that he will be reimbursed for any business expenses incurred.

Any help would be great, thanks x

[BeauBrummie]

First thing to ask is, what is the precedent for this? If you all do the same thing then he should not be singled out for a "lower" rate. What allowance is the general conscensus for private mileage. Did your colleage state that his claim included private mileage

 

If he feels that he is being treated differently to other colleauges then he would have to raise a greivance with the relevant supervisor.

 

Beau

[Sidewinder]

Also, is this a company car (where the employee pays for the fuel themselves and then reclaims it) or a mileage allowance for using your own vehicle? It seems highly irregular to reimburse mileage at differing rates - most companies have a set rate at which they pay - in our case 35p per mile for using own car on business or 12p per mile for company cars.

 

As BeauBrummie says - the best thing to do is to lodge a grievance in writing - if the agreement to reimburse all business expenses is a contractual term then complain on that basis, but also that your colleague feels that he is being disadvantaged without adequate explanation.

 

If this is reimbursement for using a private vehicle then make sure that the balance for any mileage expenses is claimed from HMRC. For genuine business mileage in your own car, the Revenue allow a rate of 40p per mile (for up to 10,000 miles pa) - the balance between what the employer pays and this rate being offset against income tax.

[Poppy07]

Thank you both very much. It is his own car for which he receives a car allowance, and on top on that he is able to claim back petrol costs used for business miles. The general cost in the office is 18p per mile, however he has a bigger engine car which obviously uses more fuel, the same as me and when I put in my claim for 25p per mile it was accepted! Though he doesn't want to go down the route of naming others who receive more money as this may result in them having their costs decreased too.

He has not claimed for his private mileage only business mileage, I think your both right and a complaint needs to be logged in writing.

Thanks sidewinder, the HMRC form is to be completed in april isn't it?

xx