TfL Ref: FOI-3718-2324
Thank you for your request of 14th January 2024 – as clarified on 24th January 2024 - asking for information about the 60+ Oyster card, station staff, and TfL staff training.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.
I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require. Your questions are answered in turn below:
60 + oyster card
Question 1: At which committee meeting (date/ time and attendance) was the decision made for people to have to renew the 60+ oyster card each year.
Answer: The decision to introduce an annual eligibility check and fee was taken by our Payments team as part of their business as usual work – it was not decided at a committee. The rationale for the change was to: (a) mitigate the risk of misuse of the concession, and; (b) to make a contribution to the cost of running the scheme. In relation to (a), note that when the scheme was launched in 2012 the average length of validity for a 60+ card was around one year. At the time of the changes in 2019 this figure had risen to six years and two months. This growth in the length of validity increased the likelihood of a 60+ card being incorrectly used by someone who is no longer resident in the London area, and hence the decision was made to update the controls originally put in place in 2012 to ensure they remain adequate.
Question 2: Was the mayor for London part of this decision , in terms of signing off or was he just advised?
Answer: The decision to introduce an annual eligibility check and fee was taken by TfL. The Deputy Mayor for Transport was notified of the decision on 13th May 2019.
Question 3. Who made the decision not to inform the public in the letter sent out with the 60+Oyster card that this was a requirement. I do not mean referring people to web sites but the decision not to include a crucial piece of information about the need to renew? Was this the author of the letter the head of coms or a political decision?
Answer: Information on the annual eligibility check is clearly stated on the 60+ London Oyster web pages and has been clearly stated in the scheme Terms & Conditions (T&Cs) since 1 August 2019. All applicants are required to confirm that they have read and agree to the T&Cs. Information on the annual eligibility check is not included in the letter accompanying the 60+ Oyster photocard as the aim of that letter is to provide a summary of information relevant to the immediate use of the card for travel.
Question 4: When did TFL first collect £30 fines for people who did not renew?
Answer: There is no such fine. Customers are required to pay the £10 admin fee as part of the annual eligibility check process. This fee was first payable on 1 August 2020. If customers don’t complete the annual eligibility check, their 60+ Oyster card is stopped. If this happens and they are still eligible for the concession, they can reapply, paying the £20 fee.
Question 5. Please let me know the revenue generated from the £30 fine since there introduction per financial year since this was made a requirement? This should be separate financial reporting so easy to find.
Answer: There is no fine, as set out in response to Question 4.
Question 6 Please let me know the number of people per financial year who have been asked to pay this fine?
Answer: There is no fine, as set out in response to Question 4.
Question 7: Please let me know the number of people each financial year who have not paid and subsequently lost the 60 + oyster card?
Answer: The annual eligibility check was introduced in August 2019 as a requirement for new applicants to the 60+ Scheme. The yearly eligibility checks started in August 2020. Below is the total number of cardholders who have not completed the annual eligibility check for each financial year since August 2020.
2020 - 17,965
2021 - 28,303
2022 - 38,590
2023 - 42,440
Question 8. Please let me know how many of these people have disabilities? I am not asking about people who have disability passes but those people with disabilities who have 60+ cards? I know that I have completed questionnaires on disabilities in the past I assume you do something with this information.
Answer: TfL does not record a customer’s disability as part of the application process for a concession Oyster photocard, and therefore we do not hold this information. To be eligible for a 60+ Oyster photocard, you need to be aged 60 or older and live in a London borough.
Station staff
Question 1: At which committee meeting was the decision made to withdraw from station staff the ability to correct fares for overpayment at the gates, or errors by customers taping on and then finding they were wrong to do so. Station staff use to be very helpful in correcting errors at stations but are now no longer allowed to do this. This is what I mean by adjustment to fares.
Answer: No such decision has been taken. The policy on the resolution of incomplete journeys by station staff has not changed and the same criteria for when staff are allowed to resolve a journey remain in place.
Question 2: Was this a a political or officer led decision?
Answer: See answer to Question 1 above.
Question 3: who signed off this decision was it taken to full council meeting or was it a chief officer decision? (dates and names of those concerned)
Answer: See answer to Question 1 above.
Question 4: Please can you send me the committee papers concerning this change in policy?
Answer: No such papers exist – see answer to Question 1 above.
Disability
Under the freedom of information act please can you let me know
1 How often staff are given face to face training on disability issues.
2 Please can you split this into staff groups - front line, office and senior management, and the communications team.
3 Which organisation/s provides this training
4 the length of time this training takes (in hours)
Answer: It has not been possible to source comprehensive answers to these questions covering all staff and all training within the costs limit for responding to FOI cases, as set out under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. Under section 12, TfL is not required to provide information if it would cost more than £450 to determine if the requested information is held, and to then locate, retrieve or extract it from elsewhere. This is calculated at a rate of £25 per hour, equivalent to 18 hours work. There are a number of different ways in which staff may be trained in relation to “disability issues” (which is in itself a vague term and would include, for example, more general training on diversity and inclusion which may not centre solely on disability) and a number of different courses that may be taken by staff, either in person or online. There is no single source for answers to these questions, and no way of collating all of the information that would fall within the scope of the request within the £450 limit. However, that said, I can report the following having liaised with various colleagues in attempting to source answers:
In relation to the London Underground (LU), all new frontline staff receive a 2-hour accessibility training module within their 2 week induction training. In addition to this, TfL have a bespoke Disability Equality Training course for all LU frontline staff. This training has been developed and is delivered by external suppliers (who have lived-experience of disability) and it is delivered online as this is more efficient for operational coverage. This training is open to all LU frontline staff at all times, and we aim for staff to complete it every two years. This training is 3.5 hours long.
LU also has a variety of other e-learning courses available for staff to complete, including ‘Turn up and go’ and ‘hidden disabilities’. Staff have access to training and resources at their disposal on their Ipads.
All other TfL staff – which includes office-based as well as operational staff – have access to both face-to-face and online disability equality training, delivered by trainers with lived-experience of disability. One such training session includes going out onto the network to complete a journey using a mixture of transport options (e.g. LU, Bus. DLR etc.) as well as classroom training. That training course is a full day and we aim for staff to complete it every two years. We also have a suite of training which supports staff who are disabled themselves and training for all staff which reinstates the importance of considering the wellbeing of everyone - staff and customers alike.
TfL’s Diversity and Inclusion team also provides Disability Awareness training specifically for anybody with line-management responsibility (c.4,500 staff). These are single sessions which all managers are expected to have completed by March 2026. This is delivered in partnership with the Business Disability Forum and is 3 hours long. All staff also have to complete a mandatory ‘Inclusion Matters – Disability’ training e-learning module which is to be repeated annually. This module should take around 40 minutes to complete.
If this is not the information you are looking for please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
Yours sincerely,
David Wells
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London
