Delay repay on work journeys

AY1975 · 11 May 2018

If you made a journey on which you were delayed, and you would ordinarily be entitled to delay repay, but it was a work journey where you could claim your fare on expenses anyway, would you still submit a delay repay claim?

Obviously, if you were delayed by an hour or longer, and would be entitled to the full price of your ticket in delay repay, then you would be claiming your fare back twice over, once from the train operator and once from your employer.

I guess some people might think it dishonest to do this, although I suppose at the end of the day whether you claim the delay repay to which you are entitled is your business, not your employer's.

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gordonthemoron · 11 May 2018

I have done in the past, it affected me, not my employer

ForTheLoveOf · 11 May 2018

AY1975 said:
If you made a journey on which you were delayed, and you would ordinarily be entitled to delay repay, but it was a work journey where you could claim your fare on expenses anyway, would you still submit a delay repay claim?

Obviously, if you were delayed by an hour or longer, and would be entitled to the full price of your ticket in delay repay, then you would be claiming your fare back twice over, once from the train operator and once from your employer.

I guess some people might think it dishonest to do this, although I suppose at the end of the day whether you claim the delay repay to which you are entitled is your business, not your employer's.

Some employers will have policies on this. I don't see it as 'double claiming' though - as you're only doing the travel because your work requires you to. Often this will require getting up early or getting home late. I don't view it as morally wrong to claim compensation even if you're being paid the cost of the tickets.

stuart · 11 May 2018

I had this very discussion in relation to my latest delay repay claim! It would depend whether it was I or my employer who was inconvenienced by the delay. If I was unable to work when I should have been, and I was still being paid for my time, or my employer had to reschedule a meeting or incurred other staff costs because of my delayed journey, then it's his. If it delays me on my way home (as in my own recent experience) then it's my leisure time the delay cut into and my compensation.

Tetchytyke · 11 May 2018

I usually ask my employer, especially workimg for a charity. Typically they can't be chewed with the hassle of reclaiming the money and just let me get on with it. But I ask.

One employer didn't give me TOIL and also said I couldn't keep delay repay claims. I just didn't tell them. If they'd given me TOIL I'd not have done that.

Bletchleyite · 11 May 2018

I wonder if some employers' views may change with the coming of cash Delay Repay rather than vouchers? RTVs are that bit of a nuisance, not usable on corporate booking sites etc. While cash can be offset against the next expenses claim and feels more like a refund than compensation.

fireftrm · 11 May 2018

Its the person who suffers the delay who is entitled to the compensation, though if the delay caused an interruption to the work you were supposed to be doing perhaps the employer coulkd reasonably expect they get the recompense? Of course if they don't suffer any loss of your employment and were expecting to be repaying your travel why should they get your travel for free, yet you suffer the time delay.

jellybaby · 11 May 2018

When our family holiday flights were delayed last summer and we received €600 each in compensation my daughters were very upset when I kept theirs

johntea · 11 May 2018

Me and my boss had no problems in doing so the other day!

At the end of the day our employer aren't going to go through the hassle of delay repay for the sake of under £100, but that is a nice bit of pocket money for a few beers in our pocket considering we were the ones that had to change train, arrive home an hour late and lose our seats!

ForTheLoveOf · 11 May 2018

jellybaby said:
When our family holiday flights were delayed last summer and we received €600 each in compensation my daughters were very upset when I kept theirs

That was not really (legally) correct though - compensation in the case of flight delays is owed to the passenger and not the person who paid for the tickets. When you submitted the claim you would have made a declaration that you have the other passengers' authority to claim on their behalf. If you didn't actually have this authority then legally that may have been a kind of fraud. Morally of course I would entirely agree that you would be entitled to the compensation if you paid for the tickets, but that's another matter.

AY1975 · 16 May 2018

jellybaby said:
When our family holiday flights were delayed last summer and we received €600 each in compensation my daughters were very upset when I kept theirs

How old are your daughters? I suppose if they are under 18, it might be prudent to keep it in trust for them until they turn 18 (or even 21). I know this is getting off topic, though.

Bletchleyite · 16 May 2018

jellybaby said:
When our family holiday flights were delayed last summer and we received €600 each in compensation my daughters were very upset when I kept theirs

Unless you used it to pay for additional out of pocket expenses (which the airline should have done in addition) if it were me I'd have let them have it (possibly over a period of time, or sanity-checking what they chose to buy or invest it in). It wasn't money you expected to receive, after all, and a few hundred quid means far more to a kid than to an adult's general expenses.

jellybaby · 16 May 2018

Bletchleyite said:
a few hundred quid means far more to a kid than to an adult's general expenses.

While I agree with that, in my humble opinion it is more money than a primary school age kid should have and they certainly don't need any cash. Had they been older we might have decided otherwise.

But this is way off topic now. Is there a parenting advice thread on here?

londiscape · 16 May 2018

I'm happy for my staff to keep any delay repay on expensable work travels. In the vast majority of cases it's their own personal time that has been inconvenienced, and our company builds in travel and accommodation expenses when quoting to the client, so the company hasn't really lost anything.

robbeech · 16 May 2018

it is normally me that has to remind people to claim or even claim for them and chase them to see if they’ve received a cheque etc in the post.
I do like them to ask though. If someone were to just claim and not mention it I would think differently of them to someone who openly said ‘I was delayed I am going to claim’ even if they didn’t say ‘do you want the money?’ To which the answer would be no.

Delay repay on work journeys

AY1975

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gordonthemoron

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ForTheLoveOf

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stuart

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Tetchytyke

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Bletchleyite

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fireftrm

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johntea

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ForTheLoveOf

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AY1975

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