A Personal Travel Budget (PTB) is an amount of money given to families. It can be used to help get to and from their child's school or educational setting.
Some ways a PTB could be used includes:
Only those currently accessing the SEND Travel Support service or those who are eligible can apply.
Call our SEND Support Travel Team on 0191 277 4646. We can help you decide if a PTB is right for you.
Commonly asked questions
There are many benefits to having a PTB, including giving you:
Giving PTBs to families also helps us share resources in a fair way based on need.
Payments will be paid into your bank account every 4 or 5 weeks.
You will give us your bank details when you sign an agreement.
Payments are made every 4 or 5 weeks.
The dates in the table below are a guide to when payments are made. We aim to make payments within 5 workings days of those dates. However, this could change because of:
For any necessary changes, we will try to make payments as soon as possible.
For planned changes to the payment schedule, we will inform those receiving a Personal Travel Budget at the earliest opportunity.
| Month | Payment Date |
|---|---|
| August 2026 | No payment needed because of summer holidays |
| September 2026 | 31/08/2026 |
| October 2026 | 05/10/2026 |
| November 2026 | 02/11/2026 |
| December 2026 | 30/11/2026 |
| January 2027 | 04/01/2027 (payment may be made early due to Christmas Holidays) |
| February 2027 | 01/02/2027 |
| March 2027 | 01/03/2027 |
| April 2027 | 05/04/2027 |
| May 2027 | 03/05/2027 |
| June 2027 | 31/05/2027 |
| July 2027 | 05/07/2027 |
| Attendance Payment - if over 95% attendance |
July or August depending on when attendance data is available. |
A Personal Travel Budget is based on the distance from home to school. The money should be enough for a return journey.
| Distance | Annual PTB |
|---|---|
| Up to 5 miles | £2000 |
| 5 to 10 miles | £3000 |
| 10 to 15 miles | £4000 |
| Over 15 miles | £5000 |
| Over 20 miles | 50p per mile |
The child must have good attendance. We may refuse to give a PTB if attendance is below 80%. This would be 64 half days or 32 full days attendance in a school year.
You will need to sign an agreement letter for a PTB. This will tell you your responsibility and our responsibilities.
When you receive the money, you can spend it freely on travel arrangements.
The PTB may need to be re-calculated if your circumstances change. This could be because of moving home.
It is important you tell us of any changes. Any overpayments made because of a change of circumstance will be reclaimed.
You do not need to show us how you are spending your PTB. We want to give you flexibility and control. Monitoring will be kept to a minimum.
We will pick up any issues through the school’s attendance records and fitness to learn.
Personal Travel Budgets have no impact on any other benefits.
PTBs are voluntary. You can stop the PTB if your circumstances change. However, we will need a week's notice to arrange other forms of travel assistance.
We can also adjust it if needed. We want to make PTBs work for you and your family.