Delay Repay

[harz99]

With TOCs now accepting scans or photos of tickets for delay repay and compensation claims, rather than having the physical ticket to check, how can they check that the journey was actually made on the late train quoted?

I've always assumed that the magnetic strip will hold enough information from the barriers as to where/when the ticket was actually used - of course I may be wrong in that assumption?

Without the ticket present, can the TOCs find that info from the printed details, ie. ticket number etc., or is the whole ticketing system not that robust?

Seems to me there is quite a potential for fraud there.

 

[Agent_c]

I've always assumed that the magnetic strip will hold enough information from the barriers as to where/when the ticket was actually used - of course I may be wrong in that assumption?

They don't even contain enough data to tell the barrier what Off Peak restriction you have, so its definitely not that.

 

[swt_passenger]

Plenty of journeys are made with mag stripe tickets that never see a barrier at all. Basically the TOC has to take a lot of a delay claim on trust.

 

[harz99]

So, don't the barriers encode the ticket with information to say it has been used?

Surely they must or you would be able to use the same ticket multiple times before the original date of end validity, especially where say, a longish journey into London is followed by a shorter one across London, necessitating the machine giving the ticket back at first arrival station to continue your journey?

 

[Via Bank]

I believe the barriers do encode whether or not a ticket has been used, but it's not used in validating Delay Repay. Especially since the vast majority of claims are submitted online, and consist of nothing more than a scan or photograph of the ticket.

 

[harz99]

Thanks for the replies so far guys.

Does anyone know the answer to this part of post one:

"Without the ticket present, can the TOCs find that info from the printed details, ie. ticket number etc., or is the whole ticketing system not that robust?"

Anyone with actual knowledge?

 

[PermitToTravel]

Where / when it was put through the barriers? No

 

[Wallsendmag]

Thanks for the replies so far guys.



Does anyone know the answer to this part of post one:



"Without the ticket present, can the TOCs find that info from the printed details, ie. ticket number etc., or is the whole ticketing system not that robust?"



Anyone with actual knowledge?

If the ticket has been through a barrier or scanned there are ways of checking

 

[mbreckers]

They do have ways of checking and verifying, as there was an article not that long ago about a couple who were done for claiming for delays they hadn't experienced.

(They had tickets and then checked to see what services for that day were delayed long enough for Delay Repay)

I cant remember enough information about it to find it in search but I'm sure someone else here will remember it as well

 

[najaB]

They do have ways of checking and verifying, as there was an article not that long ago about a couple who were done for claiming for delays they hadn't experienced.

The odd fraudulent claim almost certainly gets through, but I wouldn't make a habit of it as those people found out.

 

[harz99]

They do have ways of checking and verifying, as there was an article not that long ago about a couple who were done for claiming for delays they hadn't experienced.

(They had tickets and then checked to see what services for that day were delayed long enough for Delay Repay)

I cant remember enough information about it to find it in search but I'm sure someone else here will remember it as well

Thanks, I thought there must be a way of doing so. The questions I asked came to me as I was filling in a VTEC delay repay online for the first time, and wondering if the new system would encourage fraud or not.

I'll have to try and find the article you and najaB refer to.

 

[gray1404]

Provided you did actually make the journey that you are claiming for then you have nothing to worry about.

 

[Ianno87]

They do have ways of checking and verifying, as there was an article not that long ago about a couple who were done for claiming for delays they hadn't experienced.

(They had tickets and then checked to see what services for that day were delayed long enough for Delay Repay)

I cant remember enough information about it to find it in search but I'm sure someone else here will remember it as well

That couple were dumb enough to put in an excessive number of claims on their season tickets. The TOC then did an audit and twigged they were claiming at a rate far higher than anyone else in their records, so decided to investigate whether they were routinely on the trains they claimed to be - CCTV showed they weren't.