Cyclescheme

t-4003, there shouldn't be, obviously might be weird if your mrs buys a bike through the scheme but never actually rides to work, though there are plenty of people at my company who have bought bikes and still take the tube in.
Since the money comes out your pay packet before tax, you may want to figure out the costs and then reimburse mrs financially so she's not out of pocket for your bike, but thats something you can figure out amongst yourselves....

nice, thanks Mr blackfoot. I was thinking/hoping that would be the case. when she rides to work (about 3-4 months of th eyear) she locks her bike up in their bike area in the basement, so noone HR related would have a clue.

we're married with a join account, so no reimbursement needed :)

I over heard somone in a shop the other day saying something to the effect of you get the bike tax free, is that right? if it is, you'd be paying less than the RRP right? I can't se that working....but I might be missing something.

The way it works is as follows:

Your comapny buys the bike for RRP. They claim the VAT back (-15%)
The resultant cost is paid by you from your gross salary BEFORE tax and NI. Therefore, you save on average 50% off the cost of the RRP.
The saving is slightly lower since the VAT cut and is also dependant on your tax code.

It's still an incredible deal.

I'm not sure what the situation is with proving that you ride the bike to work. I've just submitted a voucher for a full-suss MTB. Anyone who cares to google the bike will see that it's no commuter. No idea whether they check it though.

I think the gist is that you are supposed to ride the bike 70% of the time.

Edit -there's a good calculator on the cyclescheme website, so you can work it out exactly.

thanks man

You can always use the maximum voucher allowed and buy two bikes, not sure how this would work if you went for a mans bike and a womans bike though.

As mentioned previously what happens is that the monthly payment is deducted from your wages before Tax and NI are deducted. On my £700 I will be saving about £250 therby paying £450 for it. I think if I am still at the company in December then I will be buying myself another bike, I hope Condor take Vouchers lol

Not sure this works, as far as I'm aware you can only buy 1 complete bike and associated safety equipment. (I don't think a second bike counts as safety equipment)

Also, max voucher amount is £1k unless your employer buys a consumer credit licence (about £750 - I think).

You can always top up voucher with cash though but you don't save any money on the cash part.

As mentioned previously what happens is that the monthly payment is deducted from your wages before Tax and NI are deducted. On my £700 I will be saving about £250 therby paying £450 for it. I think if I am still at the company in December then I will be buying myself another bike, I hope Condor take Vouchers lol

They do. That was my last purchase.

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They do. That was my last purchase.

Nice but my company uses the Halfords scheme even though my bike was supplied Leisure Lake Bikes

Nice but my company uses the Halfords scheme even though my bike was supplied Leisure Lake Bikes
Halfords = BikeHut (for the time being anyway) and BikeHut stock condor bikes.

Arrgh.
My employer does the cycle to work scheme. It is not tied to any particular bike shop.

But they won't sub more than £500. fuck it, what can you get for that that's worth having?
There I was with plans to get a BLB Bob Jackson, a 14 bikes Lee Cooper. I am arguing the point...

I've heard that sympathetic bike shops will let you buy frame or wheels only under Cyclescheme, my LBS suggested that they could do this for me. I'm not sure what they write on the CS quote.

t-4003 - Officially you are supposed to use the bike you get with the scheme for 50% of your trips to work, practically the tax man doesn't check and it doesn't help your employer to check either. But if for some reason they decided to be barstards about it, your wife could be done for tax evasion. This isn't going to happen, I'm 99% certain...

The scheme can cost a relatively large amount to administer, particuarlly for smaller companies, although I beleive there are agents that for a cut (which can be added to the employees "bike rent") will do the administration. As has been noted it is similar to childcare schemes, but is actually more complicated and is more like a pension scheme.

The cash flow impact can be mitigated by loan companies that again take a small cut from the amount the employee saves. And insurances so theft/loss/etc can be covered. There can also be a fairly hefty legal cost for companies, as it is a benefit and as such can impact on (well, create) contractual obligations.

The fact is most of these things are done by relatively medium sized companies for pensions/childcare vouchers/season ticket loan/private medical schemes/car allowance or company car schemes. If your company runs the above, they will have everything in place to do the bike scheme.

As for sympathetic bikes shops. I'm aware that some have very happily given £1000 of their ticketed items (even for only £900) and writen what ever was asked for on the bill.

Blue, you could always get a £500 frame and personally buy the other parts, so long as you get two receipts (as officially the employer does own what is bought with the vouchers) one for the stuff you buy and one for the frame it'll be fine...

Remember it's offically a rental scheme, it's up to the employees descretion if he lets you buy the bike at the end of the rental period and it's up to them what the fee is (more or less!)

My HR say they won't go over £500 as it is "policy". fucking cunts.
As I am only working for this firm because I was transferred under TUPE, and my previous employer went to £1000, do you think they are breaking the law by offering less? Could I use the threat of legal action to force them to raise their limit to £1000?

I am aware I could make up the shortfall, but I don't get the tax and NI break on that portion of the cost.

BlueQuinn - have you spoken to Putney cycles. They do BJ's on cyclescheme and when I was chatting to to them, they said they would build one with some of my parts.

If you provided complete wheels, say, and they built them in with everything else to the value of £500 - that should work?

just what the company got to lose if an employer want to go at least £1000?

just what the company got to lose if an employer want to go at least £1000?

they've got to have the capital in the first place to buy the bike. maybe they can't do that with the %age planned take up... They do actually save some money over the length of the cyclescheme - employer NI contributions are reduced. (note: if you have your own Ltd company you can easily run your own cyclescheme, you don't have to go through the agencies so no 10% fee.)

My company operates up to £1k. One of our offices only offer up to £500.
In that office, (sales floor), there have been occasions where people get offered better jobs and just don't come back. As the employer, we have to try and get that cash back, and that is never easy.

We also have a consumer credit licence but anyone buying a bike for more than £1k (including me) would, in my opinion, taking the mickey. I want to see a good 20% of our office cycling to work, that way I can argue for better parking, at the expense of the one guy who gets an amazing bike. Purely utilitarian.

Been annoying my HR department for a while about this and they've finally come back with a reply. I suspect they couldn't be arsed with the extra work, but here's their excuse for not getting involved:

"We can't do it because of possible legal ramifications. There have been some cases where the employer has been held liable for damages as they techinically own the bike."

PS thanks to everyone on this thread whose info helped me upt forward a strong business case to them...

Been annoying my HR department for a while about this and they've finally come back with a reply. I suspect they couldn't be arsed with the extra work, but here's their excuse for not getting involved:

"We can't do it because of possible legal ramifications. There have been some cases where the employer has been held liable for damages as they techinically own the bike."

PS thanks to everyone on this thread whose info helped me upt forward a strong business case to them...

Tell them that you'll join the LCC (and provide proof of this) as that would automatically give you 3rd party insurance, which is what they'd be interested in to avoid getting sued.

I found that keeping up the hassling works.

Thanks! Will suggest...

Mongrel - a bit of Google action gave me this from a local council's risk assessment officer.

http://www.bournemouth.gov.uk/Library/Committee_Meetings/PERSJCC/Reports/report%20to%20Personnel%20Board%20-%20cycle%20scheme%20and%20mobility%20aids%20_2_.pdf

The relevant section is:

The existing Cycle Scheme requires users to maintain personal insurance cover in respect of any
liabilities arising out of their cycle use. Unlike for motor vehicles, there is no legal
requirement for third party insurance cover to be maintained for either cycles or mobility aids.
It would be difficult to enforce an insurance requirement for use of mobility aids, and
inconsistent to have a differing condition within the same policy for cycles and mobility aids.
The mandatory requirement for insurance cover has therefore been removed, and replaced by
an action within the risk assessment templates for managers to recommend that suitable
insurance cover is considered by scheme applicants. Confirmation has been received from the
Council’s insurers that contingency cover would operate should the Council itself be held
negligent for an individuals operation of these devices on work business.

Perhaps you can suggest that they have a mandatory 3rd party insurance minimum policy. Then have them look at their own insurance contingency cover.

Don't take no for an answer. :)

Thanks Aroogah - all your info in this thread has been real helpful - will let you know if they relent.

the alternative is a proactive approach...you only need a few basic details to get your company signed up...VAT numbers and the like. sign your company up, appoint yourself as the administrator and JUST FUCKING DO IT! job done.

i run my own (small) company and recently signed us up so i could buy a new bike when mine got robbed. its a piece of cake.

not sure where this approach would fit within larger corporate rule books and what level of ass kicking you might receive.

the alternative is a proactive approach...you only need a few basic details to get your company signed up...VAT numbers and the like. sign your company up, appoint yourself as the administrator and JUST FUCKING DO IT! job done.

Good luck getting the invoices paid if you try that. Oh, and you'd probably get sacked for pulling something like that.