It may seem unlikely, but according to Barclaycard many people aren’t claiming back their business travel expenses. The credit company believes that business travellers in the UK could be losing out on as much as half a billion pounds each year.

That amounts to roughly £373 for every business traveller in the UK.

The figures were revealed in a survey by Barclaycard that showed 32% of business men and women who were questioned said they didn’t claim back all of their travel expenses.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the survey also revealed that men were far lazier in claiming back their travel expenses than women.

Perhaps even more worrying is that if the employees were more careful about claiming back their travel expenses, the half a billion lost last year could have crippled many businesses in this recession.

The MD of Barclaycard, Neil Radley, stated:

Anyone who regularly travels on business knows keeping track of all expenses can be tricky, especially when your top priority is your performance. Managing incidental and often small costs can drop to the bottom of the list of priorities. Barclaycard has found that the most sensible action companies can take is to help their employees to centralise their costs and to give them the facility to create automatic records by using company credit cards responsibly to keep better track of their expenses.

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