After reading the thread on here and my ex-colleagues telling me they have claimed and received a rebate of around £400 I wrote to HMRC setting out my claim as suggested.
My request has been declined.
The letter states the following:
To qualify for an expense all of the conditions below must be met;
The expense must be one that each and every employee would have to incur in that employment.
It must be necessary to incur the expense.
The expense must be both incurred and paid.
The expense must be incurred wholly and eclusively as part of the duties of the employment.
Apparently they do not accept that my claim meets all of these conditions.
I have no receipts so no ability to claim.
I don’t understand how my colleagues at my previous employer have managed to claim then, none of them produced receipts?
Has anyone else received a similar response from HMRC?
I phoned them and they suggest an appeal but was told not to hold out much hope.
I’ve never heard back from them after sending a letter away in december about claiming meal allowances 
I sent mine in November claimed for £2.50 a day asked for it to be backdated the 4 years allowed.recieved a Gregory on Xmas eve for just over £450 and a tax code change until April then an even higher tax code from April. Very nice 
Maybe they’ve run out of money! I bloody hope not, I’m waiting for a reply to my letter.
I sent one off for the laundry allowance and got a quick reply, unfortunately I’d underpaid tax in a couple of years so I only got £22
Whilst it seems too good to be true, and I’d not believe it until holding a cheque the number of people claiming this has given me some hope.
A massive big THANKS to the person who put this on here, I have just got £1896…If I bump into you, you will get a big hot mug of Tea…
simply reply: “I am a HGV driver, and i am entitled to the said expense as detailed in your own documentation”.
Got a letter this morning saying they’d refused as I had no receipts to prove my claim. I initially wrote asking to make a claim for mid day meal allowances not specifying an amount, they wrote back and asked how much I was claiming. I told them I spent on average £3.50 per day and wondered if they’d offer me the flat rate £2 / day.
There was a lot of waffle in the letter but it also said that just because a colleague may have claimed it successfully, didn’t mean that I’d get it.
I’ve written back explaining they never asked for receipts and as I’d never heard about it until writing to them, never had them either. Also I’ve quoted a post on here where someone was offered the £2 day rate without receipts and stating that the greater amount was offered on production of receipts.
I’m not hopeful but thought it worth a try.
I was lucky and got it at towards the end of the year last year, nice cheque, followed by tax code change etc. Then mentioned it to someone at work, who claimed using the same letter I had used, and he got turned down, with the reason of needing receipts. But at the same time, he also passed the letter onto another driver, who claimed and got it, with a cheque etc. So seems to be no rhyme or reason with it, maybe it just depends on the tax office you contact, and also the person who actually deals with it. Certainly must be worth trying, after all, if they say no, then all you have lost is the price of a stamp.