Travel Information

Introduction

The NHS Business Services Authority are responsible for any decisions about whether a claim should be paid or not, the University has no control over this process. Students are advised to contact the NHS Business Services Authority if they are in any doubt about what they are able to claim. It is recommended that students contact the NHS Business Services Authority before incurring any expense.

Students who use their own vehicle to travel to placements are responsible for ensuring that they have the following:

Appropriate insurance
Valid MOT
Valid licence
Valid car tax

NHS Trust Claims/Funding Support

Travel and Dual Accommodation Expenses

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-learning-support-fund/travel-and-dual-accommodation-expenses

Completed forms must be submitted to the University to be verified prior to the University submitting the information to the NHS Business Services Authority.

The University will process correctly completed claim forms within 10 working days of receipt. We will inform you by email when we submit your claim to NHSBSA for processing. Once your claim has been passed on to NHSBSA you will need to track its progress via your LSF account. NHS Business Services Authority will process correctly completed claims within 30 working days of receipt.

Forms that are not completed correctly will either be rejected or placed ‘on hold’ whilst we endeavour to resolve the query for a maximum of 7 day (see guidance for reasons for rejecting and querying a claim).

If we put a claim ‘on hold’ we will in the first instance attempt to telephone you, as this is usually a quicker way to resolve issues. If we are not able to make contact, we will email your student email address to outline the query. If we have no response from you after 7 days, we will email you to formally reject the claim and resubmission will be required.

The Placement Unit (PU) have designed an online form version of the NHS LSF Travel and Dual Accommodation Expenses (TDAE) Form which when submitted will automatically be emailed to PLUStudents@cumbria.ac.uk

The aim of this online form is to make submission easier for the student, and to reduce the number of amendments required prior to the PU submitting the verified information to the NHS for reimbursement. The form contains required fields and has formulas embedded to aid with calculations and to combat common errors made.

You will also need to submit the following with the form:

Section 5 - Details of Travel to Placement is an excel spreadsheet which needs to be completed and uploaded into the online form. The calculations from this will inform your entries in Section 7 - Summary of costs.
Evidence of car hire and accommodation should be uploaded into the form as a single document.
Evidence of public transport tickets, parking tickets etc from Section 5 should also be uploaded in a separate single document.

All uploaded evidence will be submitted as an email attachment when the form is completed.

If you are submitting the TDAE form available via your LSF account, please email it to PLUStudents@cumbria.ac.uk from your university email address with all required evidence.

Placement Unit TDAE Forms

For placements from 1 September 2023

NHS LSF TDAE Section 5 Travel to Placement

Guidance for completing the form

Demonstration video - completing a TDAE claim

Reasons why we will reject a TDAE claim

Student has used an NHS Bursary claim form not an LSF TDAE claim form. If the form asks you to input your BRN number, it is not the correct form. You should be asked to input your SSRN number - Our online form version removes this potential error.
Student has used the expenses form designed for Education students.
Student has not dated and signed the declaration – our online form version removes this potential error.
Student has used the incorrect mileage rate – Please note rates have increased from 1 September 2023 but these are only applicable to claims for placement dates from 1 September. If you are submitting a claim for a placement that occurred before 1 September 2023 the mileage rate is £0.28. There are two Placement Unit forms – please ensure you select the correct one.
Student has submitted a claim for dates more than 6 months ago – NHSBSA will only reimburse for placements costs incurred up to 6 months from the last date on the claim e.g., if you submit a claim covering dates 1/2/23 - 28/2/23 on 1/9/23 it will be rejected as it has been more than 6 months since the 28/2/23
Student has submitted a claim for dates in the future – You cannot submit expenses before the date has occurred, for example; You submit a claim on the 24^th of the month but the accommodation period or the journeys cover 10^th – 26^thyou would need to resubmit the claim no earlier than the last date you are claiming for so 26^th

Reasons why we will place a TDAE claim ‘on hold’

You have not submitted all required evidence e.g., bus/train tickets, parking tickets, hire car invoice, accommodation invoice – this needs to be sent via email with the LSF form or uploaded where indicated in the online form
You have not listed the individual dates you are claiming travel expenses for in Section 5 – this needs to be uploaded where indicated in the online form using the spreadsheet provided
You have claimed travel for dates that you have an absence recorded
There is a discrepancy in the calculations – our online form version reduces this potential error with imbedded calculations.
There is a discrepancy with the recorded mileage compared to google maps
We do not have a placement record on InPlace for the dates you are claiming for

Travel by Taxi

NHS BSA will not normally reimburse any costs you incur if you choose to travel to placement by taxi unless there were unexpected, mitigating circumstances and a one-off or occasional taxi journey was the only way for you to travel to placement. Any claims for taxi travel need to be authorised ahead of time by the University. If you feel you have a valid reason for taxi travel, you need to complete a Taxi Authorisation Request form.

NHS Learning Support Fund

If you're eligible, you can get:

a Training Grant of £5,000 per academic year
money back for excess travel and temporary accommodation costs (Travel and Dual Accommodation Expenses) while you're on your practice placement

Students wishing to apply for the funding should visit https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-learning-support-fund.

Eligible students should continue to apply for the Learning Support Fund as needed.

Exceptional Support Fund

Insurance Cover Information

Students must ensure that they have adequate insurance cover for travel to and from placement so that no liability is placed on the University or any placement provider (including the NHS and local authorities).

Students must check with their insurance company that they have adequate cover for the following:

to use their own car and drive to their place of study. This should include driving to a placement that is not their normal place of study and, where necessary, between different placement settings;
to use their own car during placement in order to visit and treat patients/clients in their own home, which can entail carrying a small bag with equipment/dressings in;
carrying other students.

Students must also ensure that their insurance cover is not invalidated by the receipt of a contribution towards travel costs or by carrying passengers.

Use of Hire Cars

USE OF HIRE CARS

The NHS Business Services Authority guidance states;

“Students are expected to travel by the cheapest form of transport available where it is reasonably practical to do so.”

In some instances, students can claim for the use of a hire car. This generally covers instances where:

public transport is not available due to the location of the placement, or
due to shift work making the use of public transport impossible, or
a car is required for community travel within the working day, and you are unable to share with an educator.

Students should visit the NHS Business Services website to check what costs can be claimed.

The University offers students the opportunity to use a hire car booked via Enterprise rent a car.

In order to book a car students must give five working days' notice.

To book a car students must complete a Hire Car Request Form.

Failure to repay the cost of previous bookings will result in students being unable to use the Hire Car booking service.

Failure to use money claimed from the NHS to repay hire car costs may result in disciplinary action, under the Declaration of Good Health and Good Character.

Please note any purchases made sit under Student Financial Regulations and may impact on graduation and award. Please be aware of the time it takes to claim money back via the NHS Business Service Authority Learning Support Fund Learning Support Fund to reimburse the University and ensure you respond to any communication from finance related to payment before making requests towards the end of your course.

The hire car should only be driven by the named driver, no one else is permitted to drive the vehicle. Any use by unauthorised persons will result in disciplinary action.

The University will issue an invoice to students at the end of the hire period that covers the cost of the hire. Students must then claim the amount from the NHS Business Service Authority to pay the invoice. The University accepts no liability should the NHS Business Service Authority refuse to pay a claim, it is important that students check that a claim will be paid before making a booking or incurring any costs.

Students must be over 18 at the start of the hire period and have a full driving licence. Endorsements/points on a licence will not affect eligibility to use a hire car unless a driver is serving a ban.

The Placement Unit will place an online reservation for a vehicle with the hire firm. The student will then receive an e-mail notification to their university e-mail account giving details of the hire.

If a vehicle is not returned to the depot they picked it up from at the end of the agreed hire period, the student will be liable for any additional costs arising.

Whilst you are using the hire car, please pay due care and attention, and ensure traffic laws and regulations are adhered to:

no speeding
be aware of where you park
no driving in bus lanes
no driving in restricted areas

Students are required to pay any motoring fines and associated administrative costs incurred during the hire period of the car.

Parking fine penalty notices can vary but on average you are looking at a fine of between £60.00 to £85.00. The invoice will be sent to you directly from the University for payment.

If you incur more than two penalty charge notices and/or speeding fines the Placement Unit reserves the right to remove your use of the car hire booking service for the remainder of the academic year.

Students are responsible for returning the car with the fuel level specified by Enterprise at the start of the hire.

IN THE EVENT OF BREAKDOWNS AND INCIDENTS

In the event of a breakdown, phone – 0800 316 0977

In the event of an accident or damage to an Enterprise hire car, the driver must do the following:

Avoid admitting liability e.g. don’t say that was my fault.
Assess the damage.
Phone the Placement Unit informing them about the incident as soon as it is safe to do so: 01228 279 289
Phone Enterprise Hire Car (contact the branch who delivered car, details can be found on top of the rental contract or call 0800 800 227)
Phone Gallagher Bassett Claims Line number 03330 156 446 (Option 1 followed by Option 1) to advise them of the accident. Quote certificate number Y131226FLT0123A and advise that you are a University of Cumbria student.
Complete an AccidentReport.doc and e-mail within 48 hours of the accident to incidentreporting@cumbria.ac.uk and PLUAdmin@Cumbria.ac.uk

Where damage is caused to a vehicle which is not recoverable from a third party, the University may charge the driver the costs of repair, up to a maximum of the insurance excess (currently £500).

Use of hire cars by students to travel to placement and for personal use at evenings and weekends is covered by the University’s insurance policy, however students may wish to consider taking out their own personal accident cover as specialist medical cover is not included in the policy.

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