The new Oystercard payment system for London’s public transport has recently created a new puzzle for organisations which reimburse their volunteers’ travel expenses. This information sheet explains how the system works and explains how volunteers and organisations can process their Oystercard travel expense claims.
How does Oystercard work?
Oystercards can be used like a travelcard or as a pre-pay spending card. Pre-pay users add money to the card and the price of a ticket is deducted each time they make a journey. Journey prices are variable depending on the time and day of travel, but travel with an Oystercard always costs less than paying for paper tickets. Oystercard users get a receipt for any money added to their card, but don’t automatically receive proof of expenditure for the journeys they make with their card.
How does Oystercard affect processing of expense claims?
Organisations which reimburse their volunteers need to do this accurately and should collect receipts or travel tickets when processing expense claims. Where this cannot be clearly shown, volunteers may find their legitimately reimbursed expenses treated as income by Jobcentre Plus and HM Revenue and Customs.
A number of organisations based in London have contacted Volunteering England’s information team to ask how they can reimburse volunteers and obtain proof of expenditure when an Oystercard has been used. Asking volunteers to travel with paper tickets is not a good solution to the problem, since this would cost more than a journey on Oyster and mean that an organisation’s budget for expenses will cover significantly fewer volunteers.
How can volunteers obtain proof of their travel on Oystercard, (and how can the organisations they volunteer with help them)?
Tube station – top-up receipt
If you want a receipt for the amount of money spent on one journey, you can queue up at a London Underground station ticket office and top-up your card for the exact cost of a single/several singles. This doesn’t ‘prove’ that the journey was made, so some organisations might prefer it if a volunteer’s top-up receipt is dated for the day of their volunteering.
Tube station – short journey statement
Anyone can present their Oystercard at a London Underground station ticket office and receive a statement. The statement is printed on long thin paper usually used for receipts and lists the travel card purchases, pre-pay top-ups and pre-pay balance on a card. It also includes an ‘Oyster usage statement’ which shows the date, time and travel details for the last eight journeys. It clearly records which tube stations or bus routes were used and whether the journey was paid for with pre-pay or covered by a travel card. The usage statement is printed at the end of the paper, so it would be easy to tear this piece off and attach it to an expense form.
It’s very easy to get the statement and generally the London Underground ticket staff understand exactly what you mean when you request one. This statement only records the last eight journeys, so a volunteer would probably need to request it within a few days of their voluntary activity. This service currently isn’t available from mainline ticket offices, so you have to make sure you queue in the right place at stations like Euston, Kings Cross etc. Unfortunately you can’t print a statement from the ticket machine, so you do have to queue.
Oyster helpline – full statement by post
You can request a full Oystercard statement by calling their helpline on 0845 330 9876. First you need to register your Oystercard using the card number printed on the back of the Oystercard. When you telephone to request a statement, you have to confirm some of the security details which were set up when you registered. Oyster then post you a statement which lists the past eight weeks’ journey history. Again, it clearly records which tube stations or bus routes were used and whether the journey was paid for with pre-pay or covered by a travel card.
Statements seem to come pretty quickly – even in the next day’s post - and it would be easy for a volunteer to highlight the relevant journeys and submit the statement with their expense form. The Oyster helpline number is a local rate call, but organisations could invite their volunteers to call from the office to save them the cost of the call.
Oyster website – full statement by post
You can also request a full Oystercard statement through the Transport for London website. In the same way as above, your Oystercard has to be registered before you request a statement through the ‘Ask Oyster’ section of the website. Again, you need to confirm some security details, this time by email, and your statement comes in the post. Using the Ask Oyster website facility can be a little confusing at first, but it is fairly quick.
Oystercard has told Volunteering England that it is developing a new feature for the website where instant statements showing information on your previous 20 journeys will be available to view on screen and print out. At the time of writing (June 2006) this is not yet available.
What works best?
There are a range of options for obtaining proof of journey on Oystercard, and it is probably up to the volunteer and organisation to decide which method would work best, depending on the type of journeys, the frequency of volunteering, etc
- If the person volunteers quite regularly, getting a longer statement from the helpline or website may save them time. Organisations do also have the option of giving the exact money in advance, (as allowed in the Social Security Amendment (Volunteers) Regulations (2001)), and processing an expense form once a fortnight or once a month
- If the person has never used an Oystercard before, an organisation could show them the concise and clear booklet called “Your Guide to Oyster” which is available across London and on the website. It is available in 12 different languages and the text is accompanied by lots of photographs.
- If a volunteer has additional support or language needs, a supervisor or volunteer manager could consider accompanying the volunteer to the station for the first time they request a journey statement. Or they could help the volunteer to call the Oystercard helpline from the organisation’s office.
- One other issue to think about is confidentially. The journey statement is very detailed, so volunteers might want to cross through the other recorded journeys before they submit it with their expense form.
Paying for Oystercards
One further issue which has been raised is the question of paying for the actual Oystercard. Oystercards are free to anyone buying a travelcard which lasts one month or longer. Anyone buying a weekly travelcard or simply putting pre-pay cash onto their card has to pay £3 to cover the cost of the card. This is a one-off charge and is refundable whenever the Oystercard is returned.
Since the £3 charge is refundable, it would generally be best for volunteers to purchase their own Oystercards. However, if the volunteer doesn’t already have a card, and they are obtaining it specifically for travel to/from/during their volunteering, an organisation could consider covering the £3 charge. Since the cards can be returned for the £3 deposit, the organisation should explain that they wanted the card back if the volunteer stopped volunteering. In that way, the organisation would be clearly stating that it didn’t intend to give the volunteer anything of value which was over and above their ‘out-of-pocket’ expenses.
Further Information
Tube stations and Travel Information Centres
Ask a member of staff - either in a tube station or at one of the eight Travel Information Centres in London
Read a list of Travel Information Centres
Transport for London
TfL is the integrated body responsible for the London's transport system. Its website provides information about Oystercard usage and prices.
Oystercard helpline 0845 330 9876 (open 8am-8pm daily)
Tfl website section on Oystercard: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/oyster
Guide to Oyster
– in PDF, large print and 12 community languages
London TravelWatch
Also known as the London Transport Users Committee, this is the official watchdog organisation representing the interests of transport users in and around London.
http://www.londontravelwatch.org.uk
London TravelWatch
6 Middle Street
LONDON
EC1A 7JA
Tel: 020 7505 9000
Last reviewed: June 2006
For more information, please contact
Volunteering England Information Service
Information@volunteeringengland.org
Freephone/textphone: 0800 028 3304 (10.30am -12.30pm and 2-4pm Monday to Friday)
www.volunteering.org.uk/
Volunteering England
Regent’s Wharf
8 All Saints Street
London N1 9RL
- Access all of Volunteering England’s Information Sheets
- For more information on managing volunteers, please visit
The Good Practice Bank
