Process for claiming reimbursement of Congestion Charges

First published:May 2014

Updated: November 2014

Prepared by Rylla Baker, Deputy Head of Primary Care, NHS England (London Region)

Contents

Page

Introduction 3

Eligibility 3 NHS employees that can claim reimbursement 3 Eligible journeys 4

Claiming Reimbursement (1.4.14 onwards) .4

Who to contact if you have queries 5

Annex 1 – Organisation/Individual Information Sheet

Annex 2 – Notes on completion of Reimbursement template

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INTRODUCTION

The London congestion charging scheme, operated by Transport for London (TfL) since 2003allows certain ‘NHS Employees’ to claim reimbursement of charges in specific circumstances.

Historically the mechanism for claiming these reimbursements in respect of ‘NHS Employees’ delivering primary care services, was through Primary Care Trusts. It has now been clarified that this responsibility has transferred to NHS England with effect from 1 April 2013.

This document sets out the process for submitting ongoing, monthly, requests for reimbursement of eligible claims from 1 March 2014 onwards

Eligibility

NHS Employees who can claim reimbursements via NHS England

"NHS employee" means—

(i) an individual employed by or providing services on behalf of or seconded to a relevant NHS employer;

(ii) an individual performing primary medical services as, or on behalf of, a primary care contractor.

“primary care contractor” means—

(i) a General Medical ServicesContractor who is a party, or are parties, to a General Medical Services Agreement under the National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts) Regulations 2004;

(ii) a contractor within the meaning of regulation 2 of the National Health Service (Personal Medical Services Agreements) Regulations 2004;

(iii) an APMS contractor within the meaning of Direction 2 of the Alternative Provider Medical Services Directions 2013;

(iv) an NHS Trust who provides primary medical services pursuant to section 92 of the National Health Services Act 2006.

Journeys

In order for a claim for reimbursement of congestion charging to be successful the reason for using the car must fall into one of the following categories. The journey must be connected to an individual’s duties within the NHS.

Reason
Code / It is expected that on the date they were claiming for, claimants were transporting one of the following:
E1 / Bulky, Heavy or Fragile specialist equipment or supplies.
E2 / Patient’s notes or other confidential material.
E3 / Controlled Drugs
E4 / Clinical Waste (sharps), radioactive materials or waste medicinal products.
E5 / Clinical Specimens, body fluids, human tissue or organs.
E6 / The claimant was “On Call” and responding to an emergency or similar situation.

Claiming Reimbursement

There is one process for claiming reimbursement of congestion charges and this replaces any system in place previously.

  • Prior to any claims for reimbursement being submitted each organisation/individual will need to complete and submit an information sheet. This will only be required once, before or at the same time as the first claim is submitted. If circumstances change this will need to be updated before further claims for reimbursement can be submitted. (see annex 1)
  • An electronic template spreadsheet will be provided to any organisation/individual who wishes to claim reimbursement (see annex 2 for notes on completion)
  • All claimants from one organisation need to combine their claims on to one spread sheet each month and email the sheet to with the subject heading on the email as follows: Congestion charges, month, borough and practice code
  • Scanned copies of relevant receipts must be submitted at the same time as the spread sheet[1].
  • Claims must be submitted on a monthly basis. “Transport for London” (TfL) have a cut-off point for aged claims and in order to comply we cannot process claims that are more than 4 months old
  • Reimbursement will only be made to the organisation’s ‘usual’ bank account[2]
  • If a locum claims reimbursement for an eligible journey carried out whilst working for a practice - the practice will receive the reimbursement and will need to pass it on to the claimant

Note:

  • It is not currently possible for any claims to be reimbursed where the congestion charging ‘autopay’ system has been used to make payment. (We understand that, following the recent consultation on congestion charging auto pay claims will be accepted in the latter part of 2015. As soon as the effective date is known we will let everyone know.)
  • Parking fees or fines will not be reimbursed
  • An individual can only request reimbursement for one congestion charge claim in any one day i.e. they cannot claim for two different car registration numbers[3]

NHS England can only submit the claims for reimbursement if the information required by TfL is submitted correctly. NHS England will not be able to process and/or recover reimbursements where

  • The claim is not submitted on the correct form and/or information is not complete
  • Receipts are not submitted with the claim

If claims cannot be verified by TfL and NHS England has already made a payment to the practice/pharmacy this will be recovered from the practice/pharmacy unless additional information is provided that enables TfL to verify the claim and the cut off period has not been exceeded.

Who to contact if you have queries

In the first instance queries should be emailed to or telephone 020 3049 3883. The other option is to contact therespective area team

Geographical area / Contact details
NCEL / / Tel: 020 3182 4994
NW / / Tel: 020 3182 4995
South / / Tel: 020 3182 4996

Annex 1 – Organisation / Individual declaration / information sheet (excel version attached separately)

This sheet details the information about each organisation or in some cases individual, who is eligible to claim reimbursement of congestion charges in certain specific circumstances. Where more than one person in an organisation is likely to make such a claim they should all be included on the same information sheet.

London Congestion Charging: Information Sheet

Organisation Code (note 1) / Borough
Name of Organisation
Organisation Address
Email contact address:
Bank account Name (note 2)
Bank Sort Code / Bank Account Number
Names and Roles/Job Title of potential claimants (Note 3)
Name / Role/Job Title / VRN (Note 4)

Note 1 - In the case of GP practices your G,F,Y codeetc

Note 2 - The bank account details must be the same as the details that NHS England uses to pay other

contractual payments/claims

Note 3 - Include the names of anyone likely to claim at some point to avoid the need to repeatedly update the

information on file.

Note 4 - Vehicle Registration Number

Each of the individuals listed must be aware that in submitting claims for reimbursement they

are confirming the accuracy of their claim. Organisations / individuals should retain copies of

their submitted claims and relevant evidence as they may be subject to audit in thefuture

Name and contact details of the organisation lead who will be responsible for submitting the

monthly congestion charge reimbursement claims

Name:

Telephone number:

Email Address

The electronic version of this form should be completed and submitted to

t the sametime or before your organisation’s first

request for reimbursement of congestion charges

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Annex 2 – Notes on completing the electronic claim template

It is important that all fields on the template spread sheet are completed and that no amendments are made to the layout of the form.

Fields that need to be completed in the order that they appear

Month / Insert the name of the month
Organisation Code / In the case of GP practices the G,F,Y code
Organisation/Practice/Pharmacy Name / Name that NHS England would know in respect of this organisation
Last name / Of the individual claiming reimbursement. This person needs to have been listed on the initial organisation information form as well
First name
Receipt date / Many receipts have more than one claim on them so please include the overarching date of the receipt
Receipt number / Each daily claim will have a receipt number
Journey Date / Each claim will have an individual date
VRN / Registration number of the vehicle
Internal Reference (to be completed by NHS England) / Leave blank
Journey Reason code / Which code is applicable to justify the request for reimbursement (see p4 of this guide)
Amount claimed / Financial value of the individual claim
Index (to be completed by NHS England) / Leave blank
Borough / Borough in which the claiming organisation / practice / pharmacy is located
Organisation / practice /pharmacy code / NHS England acknowledge that this has been asked for at the top of the form already but including it within the spread sheet will assist in the sorting of information for payment purposes.
PMS/GMS/APMS/ Pharmacy/ Optometry/ Dental / Type of contract / Contractor

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[1] If you do not have the receipts to send, please obtain confirmation from TfL instead and attach the confirmation to the email

[2]This will be the account that NHS England uses to make contractual or regular payments to the organisation/individual

[3]In exceptional circumstances raise the matter as a query and if satisfactory evidence is available about the incident it may be possible to submit a claim for reimbursement.