Access To Work

[chocolatecakeluvva]

Hi, I recently renewed an Access To Work application for my partner for them to get To & From work due to their disability. However they have been on this for 3years and directly get a taxi and claim it back from Access to work. However the renewal says they will pay the taxi company directly themselves. However my partner doesn’t use the same taxi company for commute as sometimes there not available so has to try another company or use companies like Uber/Bolt/Freenow. The renewal says for my partner to make an account with the taxi company and they would be paid directly but I’m unsure how this is going to work as it’s never the same company.

can anyone shed any light on this for me. Although I will call them tomorrow it’s been making me overthink since this evening.

Taxi companies often have accounts and make regular, scheduled trips, so it may be worth finding a company that will commit to all of his commutes in advance. It’ll also take the pressure off trying to find a taxi every day! You can ask if they’ll do it a different way, but honestly I’d look and see if the account/regular trips is an option first.

Unfortunately when we asked a few of the local firms over the years they’ve said No. due to us being in a very busy area in London they can’t commit to the regular taxi’s (as they get customers who come out of a very busy station and want a taxi). Plus my partner’s shift patterns are different timings daily for the 5 days of the week, which I think put them off committing.

I had to do this - I had to find a company who were willing to take the job; and then AtW negotiated with them on the rate, so that they were getting a decent amount and “regular” work, but AtW weren’t paying a full fee each time.

Uber and the likes could be used as a one-off if the scheduled taxi was cancelled or didn’t appear; but they’d really question why and the taxi firm had to submit an explanation on headed paper for it to be paid back to me.

I’m surprised that you’ve been allowed to use multiple companies for so long. It was a nightmare finding a company - I had to use three in the end; two who did two days and one that did one - and they invoiced monthly which AtW paid directly.