Managed Quarantine Service Payment

tzb27

I have received an email from payments@pretravel.co.uk claiming to be from UK Health Security Agency. I can't find them on Gov website and their contact number in the email don't work.

You were previously issued an invoice(s) for the stay(s) at a government approved hotel as part of the Managed Quarantine Service following arrival in the UK. This was previously managed by the Department of Health & Social Care but is now managed by the UK Health Security Agency.

It is disappointing to note that the outstanding balance remains unpaid.

To pay your invoiced balance(s) now, you can register and log in to our online portal and make use of an easy to use payment solution and view any previous communication attempts. The portal will also show all of the invoices relating to your outstanding balance where relevant.

Listed below are your unique registration details that you can use to activate your account and log in to our online portal, located here. Once you have activated your account you can log in to see a list of all your associated outstanding invoices as well as any payments you have already made towards your invoice balances.

Please use the values in the table below to set up your registration on the online portal located at www.pretravel.co.uk

If you would like to set up a payment plan for any of the invoices then you can contact us using the details below. Please be reminded that failure to pay your invoice balance within 21 days, may result in further action taken to recover the balance. Yours sincerely, UK Health Security Agency.

How to contact us For payment queries please email payments@pretravel.co.uk Contact us on +44 20 3922 2670 -- 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday *excluding bank holidays. Calls will be charged at your standard network rate. Debt Advice If you are unable to make payment, National Debtline provide free and independent debt advice on your arrears. They can be contacted on freephone 0800 808 4000 or by visiting their website https://www.nationaldebtline.org. Lines are open Monday to Friday 9am - 8pm and Saturday 9:30 am - 1pm

Do anyone know if this is a scam or genuine? I did provide them bank details at the time of booking. The government never deducted any payments from me directly. 

Jeremy535897

According to the internet they are looking to collect the amounts due using "debt management partners", and if you were quarantined and haven't paid, it sounds likely to be legitimate, but contact National Debt helpline and see what they say.

There is an article that suggests that charging UK citizens to return to their own country is a breach of human rights.

tzb27

Response from UK Health Security Agency Enquiries team

Thank you for your email of 24 March 2023 to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) regarding an email from our registered debt collection agency for outstanding quarantine hotel payments. I work on the team that handles enquiries and have been asked to respond to your email.

 

I can confirm that our Managed Quarantine Service uses Pretravel.co.uk as our registered debt collection agency for these types of payments. If you have any queries about an outstanding invoice; please contact them directly by telephone on 020 3922 2670 or by email at payments@pretravel.co.uk.

tzb27

How can a debt be passed to private debt collector without the original lender trying to collect the payment? Is government not in breach of my rights for sharing my details with debt collector?

I would like to see my agreement to understand how they are chasing me up for payment through debt collector. I don't mind paying through the government website but paying a this debt collector will only fill their pockets. 

MattMattMattUK

tzb27 said:

How can a debt be passed to private debt collector without the original lender trying to collect the payment?

A debt can be sold at any time. There are restrictions about them adding extra fees, have they tried to add extra fees?

tzb27 said:

Is government not in breach of my rights for sharing my details with debt collector? 

No.

tzb27 said:
 I did provide them bank details at the time of booking. The government never deducted any payments from me directly. 

Was that in the form of a completed Direct Debit mandate to allow them to deduct the fees from your bank account? My understanding that all people entering quarantine were required to pay for their quarantine hotel before travelling to the UK, what was the process regarding payment that you agreed to when you booked the quarantine?

tzb27 said:

I would like to see my agreement to understand how they are chasing me up for payment through debt collector. I don't mind paying through the government website but paying a this debt collector will only fill their pockets. 

If the government have chosen to sell the debt then you are legally required to pay the debt collectors, whether that attracts fees which you are also liable for depends on what was originally agreed, how you were supposed to pay and what has happened in the interim. 

tzb27

They have never tried to collect the debt until now. There are no additional charges added to the debt at this present time. I believe they made a mess and didn't have the resource to collect the payments. They just simply passed on to debt collector.

I requested a payment plan and filled out forms which collected bank details for direct debit. They never provided T&C's of this payment plan.

MattMattMattUK

tzb27 said:

They have never tried to collect the debt until now. There are no additional charges added to the debt at this present time. I believe they made a mess and didn't have the resource to collect the payments. They just simply passed on to debt collector.

I requested a payment plan and filled out forms which collected bank details for direct debit. They never provided T&C's of this payment plan.

On that basis you would be sensible to pay now then, they are giving you the opportunity to pay now, they are well within their rights to start adding additional costs if you do not pay. As this scheme finished in March of last year I am surprised that they have taken this long, but it is perfectly legal for them to recover those funds now.