The following guidance sets out what can and can’t be claimed as travel expenses for the GAMO workshop on June 27 2017, based on UCL’s expenses policy which is in line with EPSRC guidance.

Criteria for reimbursement of travel expenses and instructions for claiming expenses

To qualify for a travel grant, the applicant must:

• Have an abstract accepted to present at the workshop
• Be unable to claim their travel expenses from another source

Guidance on expenses that can be claimed

Public transport
• You can claim for journeys made on rail, bus, ferry, river boat, underground, metro or tram services.
• You should use the most economical method of travel.  For example, if you use public transport in London regularly, you should use an Oyster card rather than paying for single journeys by cash.
• If you have a rail or Oyster season ticket enabled to use the underground, you can only claim for travel if extra expenses are incurred that are not covered by the season ticket, and you must provide a receipt as proof of the expense.
• If you have a pay-as-you-go Oyster card, you can claim for the relevant journeys to and from the workshop: you should register your card with TFL and provide a journey history as evidence of journeys undertaken.
• You should book your tickets as far as possible in advance and not later than 1 week after being notified that you qualify for a travel grant, in order to benefit from cheaper fares.
• You should book for specific departure times, unless you can demonstrate that an open ticket is cheaper (e.g. screen grabs of fare quotations)
• First class travel and air travel will only be reimbursed if you can demonstrate that it was cheaper than second class / economy class tickets booked in advance (e.g. screen grabs of fare quotations)
• You should keep all relevant tickets and receipts and attach them to your expense claim. Note that automatic barriers may retain your ticket at the end of your journey, so make sure that you obtain a receipt when you buy your tickets.

If you have a Pay-As-Yo-Go Oyster card which you are planning to use for travel within London:

1. Use the single-fare calculator to work out the cost of your journey to and from the venue, within London.  Use the figure for Oyster/contactless and don’t forget to double it for a return fare:  https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/fares/single-fare-finder  (include print-out of this calculation instead of a receipt)
2. Use the following table to work out whether this exceeds the daily cap on PAYG oyster/contactless fares (they are capped to make sure you don’t pay more on a PAYG card than you would with a weekly card): https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/fares/tube-dlr-lo-fares?intcmp=43916#on-this-page-0
3. If the single-fare cost exceeds the daily cap, then you should claim the amount of the cap. If the single-fare cost doesn’t exceed the amount of the cap, then claim the single-fare cost.
   Taxi fares
   Taxi fares can only be claimed for journeys where:
   • It is clearly the most efficient and cost effective method of transport.
   • Alternative methods of transport are impractical due to pregnancy, disability, illness or injury, or similar.

Mileage
If you travel by car, motorcycle or bicycle you can claim a mileage allowance for the actual length of your journey. We will not reimburse claims based on petrol receipts.

You should only travel by car if:
• Alternative methods of transport are impractical due to pregnancy, disability, illness or injury, or similar or
• You can demonstrate it is clearly the most efficient and cost effective method of transport taking into account car parking fees (e.g. providing screen grabs of comparative fares for public transport)

Note that there will be no parking at the venue and you would need to find and pay for a private car park.
Mileage is paid at the HMRC approved mileage allowance rates:
• Cars: 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles in a tax year and 25p per mile thereafter
• Motorcycles: 24p per mile.
• Bicycles: 20p per mile.

Your claim should include a scan/print out from The AA Mileage Calculator http://www.theaa.com/driving/mileage-calculator.jsp or similar service showing the start and end points of the journey, along with the number of miles being claimed and the total cost of the claim.

Note that:
• We will not be able to provide car parking facilities
• We will not reimburse charges for car parking elsewhere
• We will not reimburse congestion charges

Air travel
You should only travel by air if you can demonstrate that it is the most efficient and cost effective method of transport (e.g. providing screen grabs of comparative fares for public transport).
You should book economy tickets for specific departure times, unless you can demonstrate that an open ticket is cheaper.
Membership of a frequent traveller scheme and potential air miles benefits must not deflect from using the most cost-effective airline option for travel.