Earlier this year London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced a new scrappage scheme for Londoners, as of 23rd October 2019 this is now up and running.
To check if your car is ULEZ compliant, you can use Regit’s tool for free here.
It allows people on low-income or those living with disabilities to get up to £2,000 for scrapping their old, polluting car or motorcycle. This new £25m initiative runs alongside the current scheme which has offered a pot of £23 million for micro-businesses, sole traders and charity owners who wish to scrap their older vans.
This latest scrappage initiative is to help those who may struggle to pay the ULEZ fee when the Ultra Low Emission Zone expands in 2021, which will include both North and South Circular roads.
To be eligible for the funds you’ll need to be in receipt of one of the following means-tested benefits:
- Pension Credit
- Universal Credit
- Child Tax Credit
- Housing Benefit
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Income-Related Employment and Support Allowance
- Working Tax Credit
The following non-means-tested Disability benefits also allow you to partake in the scrappage scheme:
- Personal Independence Payment
- Disability Living Allowance
- Attendance Allowance
- Armed Forces Independence Payment
- War Pensioners’ Mobility Supplement
- Carers’ Allowance
- Severe Disablement Allowance
- Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefits
- Constant Attendance Allowance
If you qualify, you can apply here at the TFL scrappage website.
You’ll only receive £1,000 for an older motorcycle or moped, the full £2,000 is reserved for cars only.
The Mayor also announced that alongside this new incentive applicants will be able to get a year's free membership of the Santander Cycles scheme, this will allow you to journey for 30 minutes absolutely free.
How will this help London’s air quality?
It’s estimated that vehicles contribute roughly 50% of the incredibly harmful NOx emissions in our capital. This has an economic cost to the city of up to £3.7 billion every single year and £20 billion to the country as a whole.
It’s hoped by 2030 that fine particulate matter in London will be at the WHO guideline level, but to do so, the Government will have to provide additional powers and measures. These have been outlined in a new report published by City Hall.
London is currently the first and only ‘megacity’ to commit to achieving these WHO air quality guidelines and all in just 11 years. More worryingly air pollution is the single most significant risk to environmental health, it accounts for 7 million deaths globally each year.
What is ULEZ?
ULEZ or the Ultra Low Emission Zone is similar to the Congestion Charge but has to be paid for in addition to the latter.
If your car is older and more polluting, you must pay the extra £12.50 to drive within the ULEZ zone.
This applies to cars which don’t meet the Euro 4 emissions standards for petrol, and Euro 6 for diesel.
Roughly speaking this means that petrol cars after 2005 are fine, while diesels registered after September 2015 also escape the ULEZ charge.
If you're not sure, you can check your car here on the Regit website. All you need to do is enter your registration and you’ll be told whether you have to pay and the charges.
What area is currently covered by ULEZ?
At the moment the ULEZ zone is from Marylebone in the east to Whitechapel in the west. Clerkenwell in the north to Vauxhall in the south.
It doesn’t, however, form a perfect circle, so you can check to see if the roads you live in or visit are currently included by entering the postcode on the TFL map here.
ULEZ runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. By comparison, the Congestion Charge doesn’t apply from 18:00 – 7:00 on weekdays. Weekends, public holidays and between Christmas and New Years day are also exempt.
What happens if I don’t pay?
Hoping you can get away without paying? With automatic Penalty Charge Notice, or fine, of £160 for not paying the ULEZ fee, you might want to think twice about that. The same penalty charge applies to non-payment of the Congestion Charge too, leaving drivers facing a potential bill of £320 for each day in the zone without payment. Pay up quickly and that charge is reduced by 50%.