Frequently asked questions

Students who are eligible for the NHS Learning Support Fund (NHS LSF) are entitled to have some of the costs arising from attendance on practice placements reimbursed to them through the Travel and Dual Accommodation Expenses (TDAE). This can be for excess costs incurred for travel or accommodation provided that a claim is made within six months of the costs being incurred.

As the LSF is not managed by the University of Essex, we are unable to advise if you whether you are eligible. Please refer to the NHS Learning Support Fund webpage and the TDAE application guidance booklet 2023/24 for placements that commenced prior to 01/09/23 and TDAE application guidance booklet 2023/24 for placements that commenced on or after 01/09/23 for details regarding eligibility, how to apply, what can be claimed, and how to claim.

Students must be enrolled onto their course and have registered for an NHS Learning Support Fund account in order to access the TDAE claim form.

You will then be able to download the TDAE claim form from your NHS LSF account: log in> current academic year> View academic year details > (scroll down) > Apply for further NHS Learning Support Funding> Travel and dual accommodation expenses> Download form.

Travel rates payable 2023/24 (for placements commencing on or after 1 September 2023)

Temporary placement accommodation rates:

Please email your completed claim form and relevant evidence to hscplacements@essex.ac.uk

Ordinarily, claims cannot be made until the placement has come to an end, however, if you will be on a long-term placement, e.g., for several months, and prefer to claim for shorter periods at a time rather than wait for the placement to end, you can make several smaller claims during your placement in order to receive part-reimbursement for costs incurred for dates that have already passed.

All claims are checked and processed by the University. If any queries arise, we will contact you and advise what is needed to progress the claim. Once processed, the claim will be emailed to the NHSBSA along with any evidence of accommodation costs incurred.

The NHSBSA aim to process all eligible TDAE claims within 20 working days (Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays) of receipt. We have been advised that monies are then paid into the bank account you nominated when you registered your NHS LSF account, up to 10 working days after the claim has been processed. The claim can show on your account any time during that 30 working day time frame.

If you travel by public transport, you may claim the cost of your fares less the cost of your normal daily travel costs to get to your usual university campus. Please keep all receipts (i.e., bus/train tickets) and submit these along with your claim form as proof of the journeys undertaken, the university must have sight of these in order to authorise your claim.

If you use contactless payments for your journeys, we understand you are able to create an account for contactless payments where you can view your payment history, please either take a screenshot on your phone or download the details of payments incurred and provide this when submitting your claim form.

Alternatively, we are able to accept a copy of bank statements evidencing payments made which clearly show the date, amount and who the payment was made to. Please blank out/redact any transactions/information that does not relate to your travel claim.

Yes, you can travel to placement in your own vehicle and claim reimbursement of 42p per mile if your placement commenced on or after 01/09/23 less the cost of your normal daily travel costs to get to your usual university campus. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have adequate insurance cover for all risks associated with its use.

We understand that the rate students are able to claim for mileage & community mileage of 28p or 42p per mile, is more than what it would actually cost in fuel, therefore the additional money is to cover other costs like the insurance and wear and tear.

Yes, students are eligible to claim any excess costs for car parking or tunnel and bridge tolls, incurred whilst travelling to/from placement. For example, if your daily travel costs to and from university total £20 per day and your travel costs to your placement site (including tunnels, toll roads and car parking) total £25, you are eligible to claim the £5 excess costs. Please provide evidence of these costs by way of a receipt or invoice, the university must have sight of these in order to authorise your claim.

The NHSBSA have clarified that students are able to claim reimbursement of private driveway parking booked via an official app, subject to normal placement guidelines. Please provide evidence of the bookings via the official app by providing a receipt/invoice for each booking when you submit your claim form.

Additional mileage/travel costs may be claimed if you have to travel to other placement sites, or to patients’ home addresses. You only need to provide daily mileage totals in this column, please do not provide individual patients’ addresses.

Any community mileage incurred must still exceed the cost of your daily mileage to and from your normal place of study. Community mileage on its own will not be reimbursed if it is not in excess.

If your normal journey to your placement is by car and your usual route involves travelling through one of these zones and incurring an unavoidable charge, you can include this with your travel costs when you claim. Please provide evidence of these costs by way of a receipt or invoice, the university must have sight of these in order to authorise your claim.

Students are eligible to claim for car hire in special cases and with written pre-approval from the HSC Placements Team via email hscplacements@essex.ac.uk prior the start of the placement.

Once approval has been sought, please provide the following evidence of the car hire agreement when submitting your claim form which includes:

• the company name
• your name and address
• the dates you rented the vehicle
• the amount paid

The NHSBSA will not normally reimburse any costs students have incurred when travelling by taxi, unless there were unexpected, mitigating circumstances or a one-off or occasional taxi journey was the only way for you to travel to placement.

If you have exceptional circumstances that you feel necessitates travel by taxi, please contact the HSC Placements Team via email hscplacements@essex.ac.uk prior to your placement to seek written pre-approval and provide this when submitting your claim form.

Once approval has been sought, please provide evidence of each taxi journey which includes the taxi company name, the date/time and the amount paid when submitting your claim form.

Hiring an E-Scooter or E-bike

The NHSBSA have confirmed that students are eligible to claim costs from hiring a scooter or an E-bike to travel to and from placement and evidence of the hire costs must be provided to the university.

If the student rents the E-Scooter or E-bike, then our understanding is that a preloaded card is used. Students are eligible to claim the cost of the card and evidence will need to be provided (We believe it’s something on par with an Oyster card).

Students who own an E-Scooter or E-bike

If a student owns an own an E-Scooter or E-bike, they are eligible to claim the same mileage rate as pedal cyclists, for placements that commence on or after 01/09/23 this is 30p per mile.

Please calculate the cost of one return journey from your term time address to campus and multiply this by the total number of days being claimed for. This number is the one you need to deduct from your claim.

Please see below an example of a student whose placement commenced on 18/09/23 they are eligible to claim £115 travel costs:

• Term time address is in Colchester postcode CO10 1CO
• They travel to the Colchester campus postcode CO4 3SQ using their own car and incur parking costs of £1.10 per day
• Their placement is at Addenbrookes hospital postcode CB2 0QQ
• They are claiming 10 days travel to/from their placement site.

Please may we refer you to Page 5 of the TDAE application guidance booklet 2023/24 for placements that commenced on or on or after 01/09/23, students are only eligible to claim reimbursement towards excess travel costs. The NHSBSA have clarified that the key requirement for claiming travel expenses under TDAE, apart from personal eligibility, is that the cost of a daily return travel to and from your placement site (including parking costs) or one return journey per week between the temporary (placement) accommodation and normal (term-time) accommodation must be in excess of a normal daily return travel costs to the university.

If students travel by electric car, the NHSBSA have clarified that students calculations for a campus deduction are still determined by the return daily mileage rate of 42p per mile if your placement commenced on or after 01/09/23, regardless of how much it costs to charge their vehicle.

If students travel by pedal cycle to the university, the daily return mileage of 30p per mile if your placement commenced on or after 01/09/23 must be deducted from your claim. If your practice placement travel costs are greater than your normal daily travel, you may claim the difference between the cost of your normal daily travel and the cost of travel to your placement.

Example 1

Student A’s travel costs are as follows:

Example 2

Student B's travel costs are as follows:

We understand some students are not travelling to campus for study for 5 days a week and have not incurred travel costs on some of those days however, the NHSBSA have confirmed that students are still required to deduct the daily travel to the University regardless of whether they ordinarily travel to campus on that particular day of the week they are claiming for. The NHSBSA only reimburses travel that exceeds what a student would usually pay to travel to campus as it is expected by the NHSBSA that this part would be funded by student loans, as is the case for courses without placements.

You may be able to claim towards the cost of staying in secondary accommodation taken near to your placement site for the purposes of attending a compulsory practice placement which forms part of your course, where it is not practical for you to travel to your placement site from your normal accommodation each day.

We have sought clarification from the NHSBSA to quantify what ‘near to your placement site’ means as there is not a specific number of miles stated in their guidance and we have had several queries from students and wanted to make it clearer. The NHSBSA have confirmed that each individual University is authorised to decide how near to a student’s placement site their dual accommodation must be in order for them to be eligible to claim these costs.

Please be advised that students from the University of Essex must book dual accommodation within a 20 mile journey each way from the registered placement site to be eligible to claim back these expenses up to the capped amount of £82.50 for commercial accommodation and £37.50 for non-commercial accommodation.

If students feel they have mitigating circumstances and they are unable to find accommodation within a 20 mile journey each way from the registered placement site and within the capped amounts, they must contact the HSC Placements Team (hscplacements@essex.ac.uk) prior to booking dual accommodation to seek pre-authorisation, providing details of the mitigating circumstances. Once we have received the information requested, we will consider the mitigating circumstances and if we are able to approve the claim.

To be entitled to reimbursement for accommodation you must have incurred costs for both your normal term time accommodation and the temporary placement accommodation during the placement period. If your normal term time accommodation is in the parental home you can claim towards the cost of temporary accommodation if necessary.

If you stay with your parent/s in their home just for the purpose of attending your placement, reimbursement of accommodation costs will not be made. You can claim the cost of daily return journeys between this address and your placement site, providing these are in excess of your normal daily travel to university.

When making a claim, you will be asked to provide evidence of the cost of your temporary placement accommodation. This must include your name, details of where you stayed, the cost of the stay and the dates. This information should be on an invoice, receipt or company-headed paper.

If you do not provide the relevant receipt/s to support your claim, the university will not be able to authorise your claim and you will not be reimbursed.

For 2 students to be eligible to claim their portion of costs incurred, up to £82.50 per night for placements that commenced on or after 01/09/23 for commercial accommodation, students are required to provide:

1. Official evidence of the booking which shows the name the accommodation was booked under, details of where you stayed, the cost of the stay and the dates.
2. Official evidence that shows both students stayed at the accommodation. We understand in the case of Airbnb, you are able to go to the booking page and click "get a PDF for visa purposes”. It then allows you to enter the guest names and download this document.
3. Evidence of the amount paid from the 2nd student to the student who booked and paid for the accommodation, for example a bank statement.


If students are not named on any of these supporting documents and/or are not able to provide evidence of payment of their share of the costs, unfortunately they are not eligible to reimbursement for these accommodation expenses.

The original invoice must show breakfast or meals included within the daily cost (i.e. Bed + Breakfast at 1 price) to be eligible to claim reimbursement up to a maximum of up to £82.50 per night for placements that commenced on or after 01/09/23. If any meals are an added optional extra/brought separately, then unfortunately these costs are not covered by the NHSBSA.

Ordinarily, claims cannot be made until the placement has come to an end, however, if you will be on a long-term placement, e.g. for several months, and prefer to claim for shorter periods at a time rather than wait for the placement to end, you can make several smaller claims during your placement in order to receive part-reimbursement for costs incurred for dates that have already passed.

Students are eligible to claim for costs in the past, for example, if you block book accommodation for the whole of your placement from 06/06/23 to 08/07/23, you would be eligible to claim the cost of this accommodation, up to the capped amount, after 08/07/23. In the case of booking accommodation, we would suggest booking for a week at a time to allow you to submit several smaller claims.

Commercial accommodation

Accommodation provided subject to a commercial rental agreement, which, whether a tenancy or a licence, imposes conditions upon the parties to the agreement, including payment, that are enforceable at law.

Non-commercial accommodation

This is generally if you stay with friends or relatives and/or in a room in a private house, where there is no formal tenancy or contract in place, without a formal rental payment. It also includes accommodation advertised on on-line platforms such as Airbnb, which is then booked through informal, off-line arrangements.

If you need to stay in temporary accommodation in order to attend your placement, you may also claim for the following and your placement travel costs must still be in excess of normal daily travel to university.

• any excess cost arising from one weekly return journey between your normal term time accommodation and your temporary placement accommodation, and;
• any excess cost arising from daily travel between your temporary placement accommodation and your practice placement site.