Brown Job
OK I accept the specific example I gave may lead to people getting grief.
However, the point I was trying to make was that this system is barking mad, and impossible to police. Define 'reasonable'. In today's climate, people often don't eat meals in the traditional way - b'fast lunch dinner (how do you think all those fast-food places around MoD for example are busy all day?). People may only have time for several small snacks and these may add up to the total without producing any receipts at all.
On the subject of the 5 hours/£21 thing, I was informed today that you can't claim for a newspaper/phonecall unless you are out overnight. Not sure why this is - I normally read the papers in the mess at lunchtime, and figured (wrongly it seems) that the Service would allow me to do the same when out on duty.
Last thing for today: who is collecting data to find out what people are actually spending? It's simple to find out what people are CLAIMING, but shouldn't the system actually record the full costs even if they are over the allowance (but pay only the max allowed)? I can see that in 12-mths time, some shiney-arsed t@sser lloking at all the claims and seeing that the average claimed is below the max allowed. QED, the rate can be reduced! Cynical? Moi?
Night Night
STH