Employees are lending their employers over £300 million through expenses every month

Employees in the UK are effectively lending their employers £321 million a month through expenses, leading to a feeling they are at times acting as a bank to their own employer.

That is according to new research from Conferma, the fintech company specialising in virtual payment technology, which has identified that 36 percent of employees in the UK use their own money to pay for work-related expenses at least once per month. The average individual expense claim is £72.20.

The problem of reimbursement is a big issue for many, so much so that 33 percent experience personal cash flow issues because of their company’s expense submission deadline. 

Cash shortfall takes its toll on employee mental health

With over a third (37 percent) of employees stating they had to wait up to or over 2 weeks to be paid back after submitting a claim, it is unsurprising that cashflow issues occur regularly. Half (50 percent) of those aged 18-34 said they had less money to spend on personal items in the short-term, correlating with the fact that the average cost of work related expenses was highest among this age group (average monthly spend of £76.90).

This is undoubtedly taking effect on employee mental wellbeing. Almost half of employees in this age range (43 percent) admitted that the combination of these factors caused them stress.