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UK employees least likely to misrepresent expenses, but AI-generated receipts create a new challenge

4 MIN READ

  • 12% of UK employees regularly misrepresent expense claims, lower than the global average (20%)
  • The average annual value of misrepresented expenses per UK employee who does so regularly is £320 
  • Nearly 1 in 20 UK employees (5%) admit to regularly submitting AI-generated receipts
  • Over a quarter (26%) of UK workers still submit expenses manually by email or spreadsheet
Boston and London, June 17, 2026: Perk , the intelligent AI-native platform for travel and spend management, reveals that UK employees are least likely to misrepresent expense claims - with 12% doing so regularly, compared to a global average of 20% across five markets. But with misrepresented claims still costing UK businesses an estimated £320 per employee annually, and nearly 1 in 20 workers now using AI-generated receipts, finance teams have little room for complacency. The findings draw on research covering 8,000 employees across the US, UK, Spain, Germany and France, and point to a system failing at every level: from manual processes with almost no financial control, to digital tools that are still letting manipulated claims through.More than a quarter (26%) of UK employees still submit expenses manually by email or spreadsheet. The research found that the most misrepresented expense categories in the UK are personal meals (23%), mileage and car-related expenses (19%) and beverages or coffee (18%) – suggesting that everyday purchases remain the biggest source of expense misrepresentation among British workers.Despite reporting lower levels of expense misrepresentation than other surveyed markets, misrepresented claims cost UK businesses an estimated average of £320 per employee who admits to doing this regularly.AI is also emerging as a new challenge for finance teams. Nearly 1 in 20 UK employees (5%) admit to regularly using AI-generated receipts to support expense claims. While this is lower than Germany (10%), the US and Spain (8%), and France (7%), it highlights how generative AI is making it easier to create convincing documentation that can slip through traditional review processes.In the UK, 36% say expense misrepresentation starts with a genuine mistake or misunderstanding, while 26% point to unclear expense policies. At the same time, 29% of employees who regularly misrepresent expenses say they know their company uses AI to detect fraudulent claims and continue regardless.
"Most expense tools are built to review spend after it happens. By then, finance is in cleanup mode, chasing receipts and correcting claims that should never have been submitted. The smarter move is to shift the intervention point earlier. Build policy into the booking flow, match receipts against real-time card data, and make compliance the path of least resistance. When the system is built that way, there is less room for error, claims arrive cleaner, and finance gets back to work that actually moves the business," said Nikita Miller, Chief Product Officer at Perk.
For CFOs who want to move from the illusion of control to the real thing, there are three strategic priorities.
  1. Build a foundation that doesn't rely on the receipt: In the UK, 68% of employees either have no corporate card, or work in organisations where cards are restricted by seniority or function. By expanding card access, the transaction becomes the record, and the receipt becomes confirmation of something that already exists.
  1. Remove the friction that creates the justification: 43% of employees across markets don't claim small legitimate expenses mainly because the effort is not worth it. That unclaimed spend matters beyond cost recovery: it is one of the most common reasons employees give for misrepresenting expenses elsewhere, a way of evening things out.
  1. Implement proactive guardrails: Integrating cards into the expense architecture enables catching inconsistencies even before the expense occurs. Spend limits cap what each card user can spend, and category controls restrict specific types of spend.
MethodologyPerk commissioned Censuswide to conduct an online survey of 8,000 employed professionals who travel for work at least twice a year at companies and file expenses for work travel, with 250 or more employees, across five markets: United Kingdom (n=2,000), United States (n=2,000), Spain (n=1,000), Germany (n=2,000), and France (n=1,000). Fieldwork was conducted between 15 and 28 April 2026. The total value of misrepresented expenses is a mean for the estimates that the respondents provided in bands and the result has been rounded to the nearest ten. About PerkPerk (formerly TravelPerk) is an intelligent AI-native platform for travel and spend management, built to eliminate the hidden, manual tasks that drain productivity and morale - what Perk calls ‘Shadow Work’. By automating travel bookings, expenses, invoice processing and events, the platform gives teams back time to focus on real work, with real impact. Trusted by more than 12,000 companies worldwide - including On Running, Breitling and Fabletics - Perk is tackling the 7 hours of lost productivity per employee each week, a $1.7 trillion problem revealed in The Cost of Shadow Work report . Founded in 2015, the global company combines innovation, control, and simplicity to transform how businesses work today and in the future. Perk’s mission is to power real work by removing the invisible tasks that slow teams down. Perk is a proud partner of the Audi Revolut F1 Team.Visit www.perk.com for more information.