Cycle to work scheme

[spindrift]

Anyone lost a bike in a fire?

 

[milkmanchris]

Anyone lost a bike in a fire?

Funnily enough my buddies garage burned to the ground the weekend before last, 2 adult, 1 kiddies and a trailer melted to his tumble drier and washing machine.

 

[maurice]

Been trying to get cycle2work in our company for years, just getting nowhere.

 

[alp1950]

Whilst I like the idea (obviously) of saving 40% or more on the cost of bike and accessories I have some misgivings about the fact that in many of these schemes you're basically renting the bike from your employer & it doesn't belong to you. Isn't there something in the regulations about the employee being able to purchase the bike at the end of the year (of rental) but the employer must sell it at a reasonable market rate? I've heard that some employers conveniently forget about the bike after 12 months, but I can just imagine some employers looking for a sizeable sum. I've also heard of local authorities putting so many hurdles in the way (eg insisting on cycle proficiency certificates) that many employees just gave up and bought outside C2W.

 

[milkmanchris]

Whilst I like the idea (obviously) of saving 40% or more on the cost of bike and accessories I have some misgivings about the fact that in many of these schemes you're basically renting the bike from your employer & it doesn't belong to you. Isn't there something in the regulations about the employee being able to purchase the bike at the end of the year (of rental) but the employer must sell it at a reasonable market rate? I've heard that some employers conveniently forget about the bike after 12 months, but I can just imagine some employers looking for a sizeable sum. I've also heard of local authorities putting so many hurdles in the way (eg insisting on cycle proficiency certificates) that many employees just gave up and bought outside C2W.

Well for me its 5% at the end of 12 months or hand the bike back

You pay for your bike over 12 months. If you leave the University before the end of the 12 month period, you will incur a higher final fair market value:

• If you leave before 3 months – 30% fair market value
• If you leave before 6 months – 20% fair market value
• If you leave before 9 months – 15% fair market value
• If you leave before 12 months – 10% fair market value

As is the norm for the cyclescheme, which seems pretty equal across the board, if your company is different, as I have said earlier chase your union rep.

 

[Jo25]

What really annoys me is that the cycle2work scheme is a government initiative, yet my employers, a government agency, refuse to run the scheme as they do not like the fact that they would own the bike and be leasing it to employees.

 

[HF2300]

I've just been instrumental in setting this up at work, and we had to go through all the questions of liability etc.

In the end, based on advice from our H&S consultants and information available from the unions and HSE, we decided there were issues, but no more so than applied to people using private cars on the commute and certainly less than company cars used on the commute on during the working day.

The thing about the rental comes from the fact that the scheme operates in the grey areas between various chunks of legislation. The employer can't promise to sell you the bike, because then it becomes hire purchase and you lose the tax advantages; so there has to be a tacit understanding that you'll get the bike in the end. Of course, this does mean there has to be a certain amount of trust involved...

Beancounter, I've got loads of sample paperwork, PM me your email & I'll send you some.

 

[Bromptonaut]

Seems easier to bounce this thread back into life rather than starting a new one.

My employer, a large government department, runs the C2W scheme with two application windows per annum. The second "window" has just opened and runs to late March.

I would like to use the scheme to acquire a moderately well specced Brompton; probably an MR6. Quite happy with the lease period/payments but stuck in discussion with HR about basis of valuation for the bike once the lease period ends. They insist I obtain a valuation from a cycle dealer but don't want to provide a basis for valuation (eg retail, trade etc). They quote "Section 208 ITEPA 2003" as authority for contention that market value is "The market value of an asset at a particular time is as the price that it might reasonably have been expected to fetch on a sale in the open market at that time".

Internet searches suggest that both bike firms contracted to operate the scheme and employers (eg http://tinyurl.com/bd9p4u ) use between 2.5% and 10% of the original purchase price as a "fair market value".

I'm obviously reluctant to commit if a dealer were to define a 13month old MR6 as having a value of say 60% of original retail.

Views?

 

[skrx]

Section 8 from this page: http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable/cycling/cycletoworkschemeimplementat5732?page=1

at the end of the loan period, the employer may choose to give the employee the option to purchase the equipment. Typically this would be offered at substantially less than the original value of the equipment, but to prevent a taxable benefit in kind arising as a result of the transfer of ownership the employee must pay the employer the fair market value of the equipment.

Something like this Google search throws up some results where government departments give 5% as a fair market value.

 

[trsleigh]

They insist I obtain a valuation from a cycle dealer but don't want to provide a basis for valuation (eg retail, trade etc). They quote "Section 208 ITEPA 2003" as authority for contention that market value is "The market value of an asset at a particular time is as the price that it might reasonably have been expected to fetch on a sale in the open market at that time".

Views?

I got my Brompton M6R+ for £31.725 at the end of an 18 month salary sacrifice scheme. The company defined fair market value as the greater of either £20 plus Vat or 3% of the capital value plus Vat.
My Letter of Collection value was for £900 ( Nov 05 ) and the overall total I paid inc the final purchase was £545. So the scheme was well worth it.

The only mistake I made when splashing out on all the extras was to order a Brompton bag for £95 which I have never had cause to use. I should have ordered the SON dynohub equiped version and paid a bit over. Instead I upgraded to the SON a couple of months ago.

 

[jimboalee]

Laugh, I nearly cried.

My employers have an engineering centre in the middle of Warwickshire. It is 25 miles from the assembly plant. The sister company's engineering centre is 16 miles from their assembly plant.

Employees have just been presented with a list of measures to avoid compulsory redundancies. One of which is the 'open mobilty' clause whereby any employee could be asked to work at any site.

Yesterday, the company agreed to the CycletoWork scheme.

Ha.

 

[gaz911]

Anyone got a contract they can PM me, so I can get the scheme up and running at work. Need it to have a sign life away clause.

Ta.

 

[2Loose]

Hmm must save all of the worn parts to put back on before any fair market valuation takes place.

 

[Norm]

Anyone got a contract they can PM me, so I can get the scheme up and running at work. Need it to have a sign life away clause.

Ta.

The scheme I set up didn't have one of those, although I did discuss it with the insurance brokers. The decision was that, because the staff have to volunteer to take up the offer of a loan bike and because the contracts say that the responsibility for the insurance rests with the individual, that it would be highly unlikely that there would be any come-back on the company.

Hmm must save all of the worn parts to put back on before any fair market valuation takes place.

If you have a loan car, would you leave any parts you had upgraded on the vehicle when you returned it? I'd take out everything that I had added and put back the mostly-worn tyres. Same with the bike, IMO.

 

[Iainj837]

I work for a county council and they are quite happy to run the scheme, I infact they incourage it. I also found that if you go on courses or meetings, they even pay traveling costsfor using your bike

I have had 2 bikes from the cycle2work scheme.
iwas chatting to the guy from the cycle shop where I got it from it seemsto be very popular with county council empoyees.