How do I claim for excess travel?

If a trainee choose not to relocate to their new place of work but to travel the greater distance, they may be eligible for excess travel expenses if their home to place of work is more than 17 miles each way.

The mileage costs that may be paid under these circumstances is the mileage from home to the  place of work less 17 miles. Trainees are not eligible for reimbursement of mileage costs for the first 17 miles of their journey as this is not defined as ‘excess travel’. Thus a journey of 20 miles would be eligible for 3 miles excess each way.

Mileage costs are payable at the reserve rate, which is 30p per mile from 1st January 2023.

Trainees appointed to single-site training programmes are not eligible to claim excess mileage as they are expected to live within a reasonable commute (less than 20 miles) of the place of work.

The exception to this is where trainees are based in London and travelling a greater distance than Zones 1-3. These trainees can claim the cost of excess fares from Zone 4 onwards, with the cost of travel within Zones 1-3 being deducted from the total amount. Trainees must be living in London and the entire journey must take place within TFL zones for this to be applicable.  Please see the flowchart on our website for more guidance on whether you are eligible to claim via this route.

To apply you should first submit an eligibility form to your employing Trust. If eligible, you should then submit an excess travel claim form.

All application forms can be downloaded from the portal here.

Please note, if you are not living within the same region as your training programme there is no entitlement to excess mileage payments unless it can be demonstrated that your residence is within reasonable commuting distance (defined as a maximum of 20 miles) of the majority of the placements on your training programme. Otherwise, agreement of any financial assistance will be subject to the agreement of the Postgraduate Dean on the grounds of exceptional personal circumstances and separate arrangements put in place.

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