Home to Duty Travel

What Home to Duty Travel is

Home to Duty Travel, or HDT, helps with the cost of getting between where you live and where you work. Because you have to be mobile and go where you’re posted, the MOD accepts that commuting costs are partly its problem — but HDT is a contribution, not a full refund.

The key idea is the personal contribution. Everyone funds the first part of each one-way journey themselves. HDT then pays for the miles beyond that, up to a limit. HDT is tax-free, agreed between the MOD, HMRC and the Treasury.

Who can claim

• Regular personnel and Full-Time Reserve Service (Full Commitment).
• Volunteer Reserve and Group B reservists.
• NRPS, FTRS (Limited and Home Commitment) and ADC personnel — but only in Inner London assignments.
• Military Provost Guard Service — up to 30 miles from their assigned location.
• Cadet Force Adult Volunteers in private accommodation, under single-Service cadet rules.

HDT starts on your first day of actual travel after arriving at your duty station.

Who can’t claim

• Anyone offered Service transport for the journey — minibus, coach or other Service vehicle — whether or not you use it. Shift workers whose hours don’t match the transport can be an exception.
• Personnel authorised to use a Service staff car between home and work.
• Medical and dental cadets and Foundation Year 1 and 2 doctors.
• Sponsored Reserves.
• Anyone receiving Travel for Operational Stand Down.

And remember: HDT from private accommodation and Get You Home (Travel) can’t be paid together.

How much you get

Your distance is the most direct road route between home and your duty station, rounded to the nearest whole mile (0.4 rounds down, 0.5 rounds up). Rates are set for a return journey against the one-way distance, and your personal contribution is taken off.

Rates are as at 1 April 2026 and didn’t change from 2025. If you live within your contribution distance — 3 miles from Service accommodation or 9 miles from a private home — there’s nothing to claim, and the distance can’t be rounded up to make you eligible.

Automatic or manual?

HDT (Automatic) is for people who travel in every working day, by car, motorbike or bicycle for the whole journey, with no extra expenses. It’s set up during your arrival and paid monthly with your salary. JSP 752 uses an average of 18 travel days a month once weekends and annual leave are taken off.

HDT (Manual) covers everyone else: people who don’t travel in every day, who use public transport for some or all of the journey, who have extra costs, or who are assigned to seagoing units. You pay your own costs and claim per journey on JPA Expenses, at least monthly in arrears.

Worked examples

Getting it right

• Check your recorded distance. HDT is based on the most direct road route from a recognised route planner. If the realistic route is longer — for example to get round an airfield perimeter, or a bypass that’s much quicker — ask HR to assess the longer route.
• Declare your real pattern. If you mostly work from home on some days, you’re on a manual claim, not automatic. Being paid automatic HDT when you don’t travel daily leads to recovery of overpayments.
• Review it when things change. New address, new working pattern, starting to cycle or car share — each changes what you can claim.
• Over-the-water journeys such as the Gosport ferry have their own rules; you can claim for a hypothetical road journey by the most direct route, minus the 9-mile contribution.

Rules worth knowing

• The 50-mile cap. Daily HDT normally stops at 50 miles each way (or 90 minutes by public transport). Your CO can exceptionally authorise more — for example on welfare grounds — or it can be agreed for Service couples.
• Remote working. If you have a formal remote working agreement and don’t travel daily, the limit is 250 miles from the work address you’ve declared on JPA.
• Car sharing. Only the driver claims HDT. The driver can add passenger allowance for colleagues who are entitled to HDT themselves — and those passengers don’t claim HDT for the same journey.
• Season tickets. If public transport costs are significant, you may be able to have a season ticket provided instead, with the contribution deducted.
• The M6 toll can’t be claimed on HDT journeys.
• Moving house. If you change address, your HDT distance must be reassessed. If your usual journey changes for more than five days a month, get authority from unit HR.

When it stops

HDT (Automatic) stops on the first day of any period of 10 days or more — other than annual leave — when you don’t travel in. It also stops when pay isn’t in issue, after your last day of travel to a duty station, and when a remote working agreement starts.

How to claim

1. When you arrive, tell the arrivals clerk or unit HR your address, how you travel and your working pattern. They record it on JPA.
2. For automatic HDT, payment starts with your salary and your personal contribution is deducted automatically.
3. For manual HDT, claim each month in arrears through JPA Expenses. Without JPA access, use JPA Form F016 via unit HR.
4. If you live privately, you’ll need to provide proof of residence at your first claim and every 12 months after.