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TfL has stopped refunding me Ulez fees when I go for cancer treatment: SALLY SORTS By SALLY HAMILTON Updated: 22:42, 19 November 2024 I’m a cancer patient being treated by the King’s College Hospital Trust. I regularly attend hospital in the Transport for London (TfL) Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) area. The only way that I can reclaim the charges paid for my non-compliant car are through the hospital.
Each month I send off the relevant paperwork to King’s. It worked fine until the TfL repayments stopped in April. I am owed about £530, and I wonder if others are, too.
Can you help? R.C., Westerham, Kent Additional stress: TFL has stopped refunding a cancer patient's Ulez fees for trips to the hospital for treatment Sally Hamilton replies: You told me that once or twice a week you attend outposts of King’s College Hospital about 11 miles from where you live because you are a long-term sufferer of Crohn’s disease and since 2016 have also been treated for blood cancer.
It makes life easier to drive to your appointments and because you are registered disabled and have a blue badge for your car, which means you can park for free. But it is not as straightforward for Ulez, the scheme designed to clean up London’s air quality, which was expanded to include your area of London last August. RELATED ARTICLES Previous 1 Next Do I have to pay for repairs to a washing machine I bought.
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.. Share this article Share HOW THIS IS MONEY CAN HELP What you need to know about money every week: This is Money podcast Since your car does not comply with the low-emission standards required to enter the zone for free, you must pay the £12.
50 charge for each day you attend hospital, then reclaim it under a special reimbursement scheme via the hospital. Since you don’t want to worry about forgetting to pay and risk penalties, you opened a Ulez auto pay account. This may have reduced the hassle for making payments, but getting reimbursements processed is more of a faff with regular forms to complete.
It all ran smoothly for many months, then hit some bumps in the road from April when no further refunds arrived. Despite the best efforts of your contact there to solve the matter with TfL, the repayments still did not turn up. TfL refused to discuss the matter with you directly, so you came to me.
Following my intervention, I’m pleased to say that, within a few days, cheques started to arrive at your home from TfL covering the delayed refunds. A TfL spokesman says: ‘We are very sorry for the difficulties R.C.
has experienced using the NHS Ulez charge reimbursement scheme and any distress caused. 'We have returned the funds to him and are in contact with King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to help them with the process for refund requests to ensure claims are properly submitted.’ I asked King’s what had gone wrong and whether others had been affected, as you suspected.
A spokesman says: ‘We have continued to submit monthly claims to TfL for patients eligible for Ulez reimbursement. However, since spring 2024, we have experienced difficulty in getting some claims processed. We have raised this with the TfL complaints team.
’ She added that its records show that all outstanding claims have now been processed by TfL, including yours. Patients entitled to reclaim Ulez costs – and/or the £15 congestion charge, if relevant – can get their money back by applying via the particular hospital or NHS Trust. To be eligible they must be too weak or disabled to travel by public transport and suffer other issues, such as needing regular therapy.
Eligibility is assessed by the hospital. More details at tfl.gov.
uk/tfl-nhs-patient-reimbursement-charge-leaflet.pdf Fortnum & Mason hamper headache I’m extremely disappointed with Fortnum & Mason customer services after ordering a bespoke hamper from them recently as a gift for my husband. I ordered a build-your-own hamper, which not only arrived late but turned out to be someone else’s.
F&M want me to pack it up again so they can come and pick it up and then examine it before refunding me. The sheer audacity! Please can you take a look. E.
M., Cupar, Fife Sally Hamilton replies: A Fortnum & Mason hamper is considered among the most exclusive treats with its distinctive initial-stamped wicker work almost as important to the recipient as the basket’s contents. It is the epitome of class and top-notch service.
Shame it didn’t live up to this image in dealing with your case. Scam Watch Households should beware a scam email impersonating hotel chain Premier Inn, consumer website Which? warns. Tricksters lure in victims by claiming they have been ‘randomly selected’ to receive a set of two luxury Premier Inn pillows.
The email asks you to answer some questions to be sent the pillows. But this will lead you to a phishing website designed to harvest your personal and financial details. Do not click on any links in the emails – instead, report it by forwarding it to report@phishing.
gov.uk. You spent £157.
60 on a hamper and chose to fill it with chocolates, chutneys, mustard, biscuits, jams and hot chocolate among other delights. But the one you received contained a Winnie the Pooh teddy bear, a mug, tea, jam and biscuits. It might have delighted a small Pooh fan, but it left you feeling Eeyore-ish in the extreme.
Your pessimism only grew after making several attempts to get things resolved. Fortnum’s online chat service put you in spin. Simple questions were not addressed.
As an example, you asked: ‘Please advise when you will deliver my hamper and collect this one. If you can’t do this immediately, please refund my payment.’ The chat service responded: ‘Some fresh items (mainly meat products) are not eligible for the bespoke hamper service.
Most other fresh items are eligible...
Was that helpful in answering your query?’ Er, ‘no’. Eventually, the ‘discussion’ ended with you being told to pack the hamper and wait in for a courier to collect it. You thought this treatment shabby.
So did I...
I’m pleased to say customer services were swiftly in touch with you and insisted you keep the misdirected hamper – with a replacement for the original on its way. You were delighted and plan to donate the Winnie the Pooh hamper to your church’s Christmas bazaar. A F&M spokesman says: ‘We strive to provide exceptional service but it is clear we fell short of the mark on this occasion.
We have been in contact with E.M. to offer our sincere apologies and the issue has now been resolved.
’ Straight to the point I booked eight Disney World tickets in January and used them in July. I’ve been told I’m due 33,586 Avios points. They are in the ‘pending’ section of my account but I can’t get anybody to credit them to my account so I can spend them.
L.T., via email.
BA says it can take up to 120 days until the points are awarded. It has credited you with 12,696 points as you were wrongly told you were due more than 33,000. *** I worked for the Post Office in the 1990s and was in the workplace pension scheme.
My pension was transferred when I moved jobs. But when I started drawing my pension, I found no record of the transfer. I believe it was worth £5,600.
L.A., Biggar, South Lanarkshire.
The Post Office has no record of your pension. Willis Towers Watson manages your RBS pension. It believes while you worked for the Post Office you were ‘contracted out’ of the Additional State Pension.
In effect, the pension transfer you are looking for went into your State Pension. *** I returned a roll of wallpaper in October via Evri but the company never received it. Evri can’t locate it.
I’ve been unable to submit a refund form. The wallpaper cost £75 and I paid £8.93 postage.
C.H., via email.
Evri apologises and says the parcel was damaged. It has now paid the claim in full. *** The battery light appeared on my van so I visited a repair shop.
I was sold a battery for £135 but the light still came on. I returned the next day asking for the alternator to be checked but was told they didn’t test that despite being told they did the day before. I later broke down and spent £610 on recovery and repairs.
A.S., Kent.
The repair shop apologises. You have been refunded for the battery and some of your breakdown costs. Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email sally@dailymail.
co.uk — include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them.
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