Ulez error leaves Britons out of pocked by THOUSANDS of pounds as apology issues
Britons who applied for a grant scheme to scrap their polluting vehicle have been left struggling as they wait for payouts to be handled
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Britons in London who applied for a grant to scrap their old vehicle for a new Ulez-compliant motor have been left struggling as they wait for payouts to be handled, claimants say.
London mayor Sadiq Khan launched the scheme for owners of older vehicles that do not meet emissions standards to receive payments of £2,000 to replace the non-compliant cars and avoid the charge.
The £160million scrappage project was offered to qualifying owners in August, however a number of applicants claim that administrative failings have left them facing £12.50 daily charges.
Many claimants have reported rejections for invalid reasons which has left them waiting weeks for the grant.
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One woman waited eight weeks for a decision that should have taken 10 working days after her application was mishandled by the scheme, which is managed by Capita on behalf of Transport for London (TfL).
She received an email approving the grant a week after submitting her claim but later the same day was sent a second email saying her application had been rejected.
She was then asked her to resubmit two pages from her logbook.
“Two weeks after that we received another emailed letter of approval reminding us to provide a proof that we’d scrapped the car before the end of the month,” she told The Guardian.
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“We therefore took the car to an approved scrapyard and uploaded the certificate of destruction on TfLs website. A week later, we received an email rejecting our original application and asking for the same two pages we’d already sent twice.”
She did so but was told that her application had expired as it was “incomplete”.
"The rejection letter invited us to apply again which we couldn’t do as the car had been scrapped," she added.
The couple finally received the £2,000 – and on the same day another email informed them that their application had been rejected.
The £160m scrappage project was offered to qualifying owners in August, however a number of applicants claim that administrative failings have left them facing £12.50 daily charges
PASome sole traders with older, non-Ulez-compliant vans are facing financial hardship following the delays.
One, who has been waiting six weeks for his claim to be approved said: “After two rejections, I’ve been told my latest application was escalated five weeks ago to the ‘back room’ and there is no way myself or TfL can contact them.
“This is my livelihood we’re talking about.”
A TfL spokesperson said:“We apologise to any customer that has experienced distress due to delays in the processing of their application to our £160million Ulez scrappage fund.
"We regularly review our application process and always consider any further ways to streamline our handling of applications.