Twice in the past few weeks senior business people have taken it upon themselves to tell me how modest their expense claims are. Each assured me there were all sorts of things they were perfectly entitled to claim for that they chose to finance out of their own pockets.

The conclusion I was meant to draw was that they were fine, upstanding people and great role models in business. The conclusion I actually drew was that they were part of a tiresome fashion in Britain: claiming that you are under-claiming. Last week, Barclaycard published a survey saying that executives routinely under-claim on business travel, and that the more senior you are, the less you claim. The average chairman under-claims £719 ($1,164) a year, apparently.