Guidance

Calculate your concessionary bus travel reimbursement

How local authorities can calculate reimbursement to bus operators that carry concessionary passholders.

• From: Department for Transport
• Published: 1 November 2011
• Last updated: 27 November 2025
  Show all updates

  1. 27 November 2025

     Concessionary bus travel reimbursement calculator 2026 to 2027 updated.

  2. 7 November 2025

     Concessionary bus travel reimbursement calculator 2026 to 2027 added.

  3. 20 November 2024

     Concessionary bus travel reimbursement calculator 2025 to 2026 added.

  4. 5 January 2024

     Concessionary bus travel reimbursement calculator 2024 to 2025 added.

  5. 23 May 2023

     Concessionary travel reimbursement calculator 2023 to 2024 updated to correct duplicated inflation data.

  6. 2 December 2022

     Added new reimbursement calculator for 2023-2024

  7. 29 March 2022

     Concessionary travel reimbursement calculator 2022 to 2023 updated with the latest GDP deflator data.

  8. 27 January 2022

     The VLOOKUP formulas in tab ‘RF Workings’, used to calculate the average fare in 2005 to 2006 prices, have been updated to include the latest CPI index year.

  9. 2 December 2021

     CPI/GDP deflator and Microsoft Excel macros updated in the calculator.

  10. 22 November 2021

      Published bus travel reimbursement calculator 2022 to 2023.

  11. 27 November 2020

      Published bus travel reimbursement calculator 2021 to 2022.

  12. 10 January 2019

      Error correction to 2019 to 2020 software: updated for discovered mistakes in the reimbursement factor workings calculations.

  13. 28 December 2018

      Error correction: software updated for discovered mistakes in the average fare workings calculations.

  14. 28 November 2018

      Error correction: software updated for discovered mistakes in the additional costs and marginal capacity cost calculations.

  15. 26 November 2018

      Calculator software updated for claim use between 2019 to 2020.

  16. 28 September 2017

      2018 to 2019 calculator published.

  17. 1 November 2016

      Concessionary bus travel reimbursement calculator 2017 to 2018.

  18. 2 October 2015

      Calculator for 2016 to 2017 published.

  19. 20 November 2014

      The change in fares between 2005 to 2006 and 2010 to 2011 calculated on the basis of the National Bus Fare Index in the calculator has been revised to take account of changes made by the department to the way that the index is calculated in 2011.

  20. 13 November 2014

      2015 to 2016 calculator added, featuring updates to reflect up-to-date information on consumer price index and gross domestic product deflators.

  21. 7 October 2013

      Reimbursement calculator 2014 to 2015 added.

  22. 1 November 2011

      First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Concessionary bus travel reimbursement calculator 2026 to 2027

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 543 KB

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Concessionary bus travel reimbursement calculator 2025 to 2026

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 544 KB

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email webmasterdft@dft.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

This calculator assists travel concession authorities to calculate reimbursement to bus operators for carrying concessionary passholders under the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS).

To calculate reimbursement for the tax year 2026 to 2027, use the 2026 to 2027 calculator with the:

• guidance on how to reimburse bus operators for concessionary travel
• concessionary travel appeals form and guidance for applicants

The 2025 to 2026 calculator is retained for comparison purposes only.

The National Archives has copies of previous concessionary bus travel reimbursement calculators, including versions used before the 2023 review of ENCTS.

The calculator was updated on 27 November 2025 to include the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) November forecasts for average earnings growth and for consumer price index (CPI).