Relocation and excess travel: Employing Body responsibilities

Overview

This article explains Employing Body responsibilities in regard to relocation and excess travel funding in the London region

Relocation and excess travel funding exists to ensure resident doctors are not financially disadvantaged by reasonable costs incurred as a result of moving home or travelling longer distances due to the structure of their training programme. It is intended to provide financial assistance where eligibility criteria are met and does not cover all costs that may arise.

Key principles

• Relocation funding is not an allowance and is not an automatic entitlement.
• Eligible resident doctors may claim up to £10,000 for the duration of their entire training programme, from start of training to award of CCT.
• Employing bodies are responsible for assessing eligibility, paying claims and reclaiming costs from NHS England.
• Eligibility must be confirmed before costs are incurred wherever possible, and all claims must represent value for money.

Who this article applies to

This article applies to London NHS Trusts and Community Interest Companies (CICs) that employ postgraduate medical and dental resident doctors and public health registrars who are in an approved NHS England training programme.

Who is eligible for relocation and excess travel funding

• Medical resident doctors from Foundation Year One onwards, including academic resident doctors.
• Dental resident doctors from Dental Core Training onwards, including academic resident doctors.
• Public Health registrars, including academic clinical fellows and academic clinical lecturers, irrespective of whether they are on medical or agenda for change contracts.

To be eligible, resident doctors must either be required to relocate to take up a training programme lasting a minimum of two years and rotate between different geographical areas as part of their approved training programme.

Who is not eligible

• Resident doctors who are out of programme (OOP), unless on approved Out of Programme for Training (OOPT), are not eligible for relocation or excess travel funding.
• Resident doctors appointed to single-site training programmes are not eligible for excess travel or temporary accommodation funding.
• GP resident doctors reimbursed for home-to-work mileage under national GP terms and conditions are not eligible for excess travel funding.
• International resident doctors are not eligible for any of the costs of getting to the UK.
• First time buyers are not eligible for property purchase costs.

What can be funded

There are five categories of relocation and excess travel expense that may be funded where eligibility criteria are met:

• Excess travel – mileage or fares where the journey from home to the place of work exceeds 17 miles each way or Zones 1–3 in London.
• Temporary accommodation expenses – as an alternative to excess travel where daily commuting would be unreasonable.
• Removal of personal and household effects.
• Property sale and purchase costs associated with relocation.
• Continuing commitments where a resident doctor has unavoidable overlapping housing costs.

Excess travel

Eligible resident doctors may claim excess travel expenses when the distance from home to their place of work exceeds 17 miles each way.

Excess mileage is calculated as the total journey minus the first 17 miles each way. Claims may be made for travel by car, public transport or bicycle, using nationally agreed rates. London travel by public transport is calculated as the excess fare beyond Zones 1–3, provided that the journey starts or ends in, or crosses, Zones 1-3..

Temporary accommodation expenses

Where daily travel distances are agreed to be excessive or unsustainable, resident doctors may instead claim temporary accommodation expenses. These are subject to regional monthly maximum allowances and normally include the cost of one return journey home per week.

Removal expenses

Removal expenses may be claimed where a resident doctor relocates their primary residence more than 30 miles or more than one hour’s travel time from their previous residence, and lives within 20 miles (deemed to be a reasonable commuting distance) of the majority of placements on their training programme.

First-time buyers or resident doctors moving between rented properties may only claim removal of effects up to a maximum of £500, and reasonable accommodation search costs.

Property sale and purchase costs

If a resident doctor is selling their property, they can be reimbursed for the sale costs of the property along with the removal expenses, and if they are purchasing a property in the new location, rather than renting, then they can be reimbursed for the purchase costs too.

For property sale/purchase costs, it is likely that the stamp duty will exceed £10,000. Relocation expenses are limited to £10,000 so the resident doctor would not be able to claim the full cost of the move. Where two resident doctors are moving together, the maximum tax-free allowance claimable under HMRC for one relocation is £8,000 (i.e. the HMRC allowance is per move not per resident doctor). 

Sale and purchase should usually be completed within 12 months of beginning the relevant rotation.

Continuing commitments

Continuing commitments support resident doctors with unavoidable overlapping housing costs, such as maintaining a mortgage on an unsold property while renting near a placement, or family circumstances that prevent immediate relocation. Claims are time-limited and subject to funding limits.

What cannot be funded

• Accommodation provided for on-call or night duty.
• Loan interest, insurance or redemption fees.
• Costs incurred before eligibility has been confirmed.

How do resident doctors apply for relocation expenses

There are 2 steps to the relocation expenses process:

1. Eligibility to Claim Form – resident doctors should submit this form to their employing Trust. Trusts should reply with an eligibility outcome letter. If eligibility is confirmed, the resident doctor may submit claims. No claims should be accepted until eligibility is confirmed.

2. Claim Form – resident doctors should submit this with all receipts or other documents required for their claim, as detailed in their eligibility outcome letter. 

How to submit a monthly return for reimbursement

Relocation returns should be submitted via the PGMDE Support Portal on a monthly basis (usually within the first week of the month). It is important to ensure that the latest template is used.

The template will run a number of automatic checks on the data you have entered. If any entries are detected that do not match the expected input, these will be highlighted in red and a note will appear in the end column headed Data checks. This note should help you to amend any entry mistakes or discrepancies before submitting. 

There is also a comments column where you can enter any additional information you think will be useful for us to process the claim. Please do not overwrite cells in other columns with values not in the drop-down list.

When Employing Bodies should contact the London relocation team

1. If you have questions about eligibility
2. If you have new staff who need training
3. If you feel there are exceptional circumstances justifying a claim when eligibility rules are not met
4. For advice on dealing with delays caused either by the resident doctor or the Employing Body
5. If the resident doctor wishes to lodge an appeal
6. If you have queries about completion of your monthly return
7. If a resident doctor is going beyond 8 years in training and needs to exceed the £10,000 limit

Further information and support

Resident doctors should contact their employing organisation in the first instance for advice on eligibility and claims. Further guidance and forms are available via the PGMDE Support Portal.

Related articles

• Relocation and excess travel: who is eligible, what can be funded and how to claim
• Relocation and excess travel: how to submit a claim, what to provide, and how to appeal