June 24, 2026
Nearly a Third of UK Employees Use AI to Fake Expenses as Financial Strain Bites
Nearly three in ten UK employees admit to using AI to fake or alter expense receipts. For people leaders, the next move is not to catch them out, but to examine what the behaviour actually means.
New research from expense management software firm Emburse found that 29% of UK employees have used AI to generate or manipulate expense receipts to top up their pay. A further 40% said they had submitted personal purchases as business expenses, or considered doing so, because of worries about their own finances. The survey of 1,000 UK professionals, carried out by Atomik Research in early May 2026, frames this as a growing fraud risk as AI tools become easier to use.
It is worth being clear about where the data comes from. Emburse sells AI-powered expense validation, so research showing AI-enabled expense fraud on the rise sits neatly alongside what it is trying to sell. The figures are self-reported and the framing is the vendor’s own. Even with that caution applied, the signal underneath is difficult to dismiss, because the same study points to a problem that has nothing to do with dishonesty.
Employees Are Funding the Business Out of Their Own Pockets
The research found that many employees are routinely paying for work out of their own pockets.
More than two-thirds (68%) said they had incurred bank fees after covering business costs on a personal debit or credit card. Three in five (61%) wait more than a week to be reimbursed, half (51%) said delayed reimbursements had caused them financial strain, and 73% would rather use a company card.
Marne Martin, chief executive of Emburse, argues that this arrangement quietly shifts risk onto the people who can least afford it. She describes it as effectively “an interest-free loan from employee to employer.” For workers already managing rising costs, Martin notes, that temporary loss of funds can squeeze cash flow and push people towards credit, overdrafts, or interest charges.
Faking Expenses Is Usually a Sign of Financial Distress, Not Dishonesty
Treating this purely as a compliance issue misses the point. An employee altering a receipt for a modest amount is usually someone who is struggling financially, rather than a fraudster in the making.
The uncomfortable part for employers is their own role in it. Slow reimbursement and a reliance on personal cards deepen the strain employees are already under.
The wider picture explains why even small financial knocks now hurt. In April 2026, 21% of adults in Great Britain said they had borrowed more or used more credit than usual over the past month compared with a year earlier, according to the House of Commons Library. Almost a quarter (23%) said they could not afford an unexpected but necessary expense of £850.
By May, half of households (50%) were making adjustments to cover essential spending, from cutting back to dipping into savings, selling possessions, or borrowing, Which? found.
This sustained financial pressure is changing how fair people perceive their pay packet to be.
How Money Worries Affect Performance and Absence at Work
Financial strain does not ease when employees enter the workplace. The Building Societies Association (BSA) found that 22% of people say money worries have hurt their performance at work, and 19% have taken time off because of financial stress.
Absence carries an obvious cost, but the less visible effects, including reduced service quality, lower morale, and added pressure on colleagues, are just as much of a concern.
How Financial Stress Becomes a Customer Experience Problem
For organisations in customer-facing industries, this is where financial wellbeing becomes a customer experience issue as well. Research from Zellis found that financial stress leaves 38% of employees less able to focus and concentrate, 25% less productive, and 19% less patient with colleagues and customers.
A distracted, depleted, or short-tempered employee is felt directly by the customer they are interacting with. Compounding this is the reality that workers who carry much of the service experience are often the same people with the thinnest financial cushion.
The cost of ignoring this therefore shows up twice: once in retention and absence, and again in the quality of every customer interaction.
What Employers Can Do About Financial Wellbeing
Some of the fixes are obvious and within reach: reimbursing people quickly, offering company cards, and removing the bank fees employees never agreed to absorb. These would all take away a source of strain the employer created, and none of it requires a new wellbeing budget.
Beyond process, the stronger response is treating financial wellbeing as a core part of the employee experience rather than a benefits afterthought.
That often means helping people feel more in control through accessible, relevant support and clear signposting, rather than simply paying more.The expense-fraud headline is the symptom worth noticing. But the financial strain behind it, and the employer’s hand in easing or worsening it, is the part people leaders can actually do something about.
