Has anyone got experience of the Access to Work scheme for help getting to an from work. I travel over 40 miles each way to work plus travel off site to meetings. It is all getting too much - I only do it three days a week but can’t really cope with that anymore.
I cannot use public transport due to walking problems - so would have to have a taxi as the only alternative to driving. Has anyone else gone down this route - how much would it cost me, how difficult is it to get this sort of support and is it a difficult assessment process?
Any help or advice welcome - I am desperate! THanks in advance.
I had support from Access to Work but not for travel to and from work. They were really helpful and certainly worth contacting to see what they can do. I know thay do provide support with travelling to and from work.
I have used A2W for 2 years now for taxis to work. The process is the same as for anything else they help with. The way mine is set up is as follows:
Journeys TO work I pay 25p per mile and claim back the rest from A2W.
Journeys I need to make FOR I have to claim the normal amount I would get in petrol from work and the rest from A2W. This was difficult to start with as work had to trust that I had done the journeys with no receipts from anywhere (they have been great thought).
It has been a job-saver literally as my eyesight is not what it was thanks to ON as well as it being exhausting doing such a long commute each day. My place of work is 21 miles away but I often have to go to other sites too.
Just one word of advice - a ‘journey’ in taxi speak and in A2W speak is one way and not there and back as I thought. I was seriously under-funded to start with because of this mistake.
Good luck and message me if you need anything else.
I use them and it is a fantastic scheme, I get assistance in the form of taxis to and from work as I cannot walk well enough to use public transport. The arrangement I have with them is that I pay what I would have paid on public transport if I were able bodied (I work full time so the works out as the annual travelcard cost in London spread over 260 days) and they contribute the remainder. I pay for the taxis up front and submit a claim each month the reclaim their part of the costs (so you need a bit of cash saved up to cover this for the first month).
It has been a life saver and I would have had to give up my job if it were not for the scheme. The exact way they contribute will depend on your circumstances and the assistance may not take this form (when I was evaluated they investigated several different options and this was deemed the most suitable for my situation).
Hi, I use it as well to pay for my taxis to & from work. It was a fairly straight forward process to set up, basically I just needed to get quotes for the journey from a few different companies and I had to go with the cheapest one. To be honest I can’t remember how quickly it took to get it set up, or if there was much liaising between AtoW and my work. But now all I need to do is pay up front for the taxi, making sure I get a receipt, and then fill out a simple claim form each month and send it in with all the receipts to AtoW. Then a few weeks later I get the money refunded into my account.
Hope you get it OK, it’s been a life saver in helping me to carry on working.
Like the other respondents I too use ATW to get to work, it really is an excellent scheme to facilitate work for those of us with disabilities. I have an access to work adviser who I meet with every two years or sooner if need be.They pay 90% of taxi fares to and fron work and when I go offsite my work(nhs) legally picks up the bill through a named organisation which has the contract for this. Travel within work is paid by the Trust, I just have to forward appropiate documentation to my manager and do not have to pay anything myself up front for these journeys.