Cycle To Work Scheme rant

desweller

I've just got back from a 2 1/2 week holiday to find that our wonderful HR department, after 5 years of hassling, have finally decided to joint the Cycle To Work scheme...and accepted applications for a grand total of two weeks! No announcement beforehand, they just sent everyone an email the day after I left on my hols to tell everyone that they were accepting applications for two weeks from that date.

So I have missed the whole thing, despite being one of the few employees who cycles to work on a daily basis, come rain or shine. Annoying or what?

So, I wondered - is this normal practice for firms? How long did your companies open the scheme for? Did you have the same problems and did you manage to get round them?

Needless to say I am hassling them to reopen it, but it would be good to have some examples of how other employers are managing their schemes...

El Capitano

Ours opened about this time last year and they stopped taking applications around December time.

TBH, I was a bit miffed at the timing of our scheme as I'd bought the Focus to commute on a couple of months beforehand. That said, I did avail myself of the offer and now have the Ribble TT bike, which is obviously my main commuter bike... :oops:

surreyxc

aside from pushing them to do it, I think you could probably do all the paperwork yourself and just get them to sign on the dotted line. That may appeal more to them. My girlfriend is in a similar position, as the company only offer a two week window to submit your entire benefits package, and if your circumstances change in the year tough. What does HR actually do, as the staff in those departments do not actually seem to know anything about the business they work for. Normally consist of women with chips on their shoulders who like abusing the control they have over petty office matters and taking backhanders from recruitment agencies. That last statement is absolute fact!

Cafewanda

I think we get about a month to decide on our benefits package, including C2W, with frequent reminders during that time.

Hope you are successful.

Rich158

Ours is constantly open as an ongoing benefit. There's no time limit, anyone can join at any time There's no stipulation on time limit as I understand it, other than your HR department wanting to limit the paperwork to a short period to make their own lives easier.

g00se

Ours is open continually - but it's a big firm with a big HR department, so there's a lot of resources and salary sacrifice schemes always running.

dhope

We got our first notification on 22nd Feb that we would have a 2 week window from 5th April til 20th April, then a few more leading up to the date, then an extension til 23rd April.

But we have to pick all our benefits at that time, Cycle2Work, pension salary sacrifice, travel insurance etc etc, so they have the 2 week window around year end.

davis

You could argue that because "The cycle to work scheme must be made available to all employees" (part of the rules) you've been excluded unfairly.

However, that way wrangling lies, and it could get messy. Don't suppose you've got any friends in the HR department you can try first have you?

desweller

I will use that option if I can't persuade them via more diplomatic means. In the meantime I'm just trying to collect information to show them how inadequate they are.

cougie

I work for a huuuge company. They asked if we'd be interested in the scheme months back - I said yes and got as many pals as i could find to say yes.
Theyve been thinking about it ever since. HR as useful as a chocolate fireguard....

Monkeypump

DesWeller wrote:

I will use that option if I can't persuade them via more diplomatic means. In the meantime I'm just trying to collect information to show them how inadequate they are.

I'm not sure highlighting their inadequacy is the best opening gambit!

Try to be reasonable with them, appeal to their good nature and acknowledge that this is an unfortunate set of circumstances. You’d just like to avoid missing out on the opportunity to use the scheme.

In response to your original question, our scheme is open for a month and we get about a months notice. The scheme runs once a year, but there is talk of changing it to twice a year.

SickAsAParrot

We were told about 3 weeks ago it was coming on July 1st, and I think it's open for 2 months. Going down Brian Rourkes this afternoon to look at some.

desweller

Monkeypump wrote:

DesWeller wrote:

I will use that option if I can't persuade them via more diplomatic means. In the meantime I'm just trying to collect information to show them how inadequate they are.

I'm not sure highlighting their inadequacy is the best opening gambit!

Try to be reasonable with them, appeal to their good nature and acknowledge that this is an unfortunate set of circumstances. You’d just like to avoid missing out on the opportunity to use the scheme.

In response to your original question, our scheme is open for a month and we get about a months notice. The scheme runs once a year, but there is talk of changing it to twice a year.

Yes I will probably phrase it more diplomatically than that!

Agent57

Ours is only available at the start of the year (which means September, I think). We get the voucher in October, and are only allowed to apply once every three years. I missed it last year, but should be able to take advantage this year.

rich_e

Totally depends on who they are using for the Cycle to Work Scheme and how your company benefits is setup.

At my previous work, they used to be on a C2W scheme where you could join at anytime you liked. They then did a reshape of the company benefits, and used a 'benefits company' who can help manage loads of different types of services and discounts and the like to the employee.

However, with that setup, they gave everyone a month to chat about and get information, and are then locked into those benefits for the working year. Meaning, if you want to join C2W you have to do it then.

Annoyingly I moved to London not long after it was closed and they weren't able to let me join the C2W scheme for another year I was told. The benefits company worked on the basis that if you give everyone a small window of time to join different benefits, they are more likely to than if it was open all year, unless a change of circumstances occurs. I tried to argue that having moved to London was a change of circumstances, but was told the only thing that really qualified was becoming pregnant!

What annoyed me even more so about it is that the company was large sized, yet a lot of the staff were transient, working on one job, moving on, perhaps coming back. So the benefits scheme was pretty silly on a fixed calendar year.

I bought a bike outright in the end, because obviously I needed it for commuting. Annoyingly after I left, they decided to allow new applications to C2W in January, because they finally caved in to people asking for the last 6 months.

prawny

Ous is open year round, only allowd to have one bike every 3 years though which is crap, I might let them have whats left of mine when the hire period is up, it's looking like being just the frame forks and stem.

desweller

Thanks everyone for your responses - there's certainly a wide variety of approaches!

We're on Cyclescheme, which is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) I believe. The HR people have made some vague noises about reopening it in a couple of months if there's enough complaining from people who missed it the first time round, so I've concluded that the only reason they've run it over a very short period is to reduce their admin load.

I'm going to pay Condor a visit and have a shufti at the Heritage anyway. At least then I'll have a quote to wave at HR...

thecrofter

My company just flat refused to do it, w*****s

g00se

DesWeller wrote:

We're on Cyclescheme, which is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) I believe. The HR people have made some vague noises about reopening it in a couple of months if there's enough complaining from people who missed it the first time round, so I've concluded that the only reason they've run it over a very short period is to reduce their admin load..

Sounds like it. We're on cyclescheme and - like I said above - there's no time limit.

desweller

thecrofter wrote:

My company just flat refused to do it, w*****s

Gits. Persevere, we've been hassling ours for years. We even built our own bike shed behind the factory.

pastryboy

Mine comes up every June which is pretty poor timing since it's getting towards the end of the season where the next year's models are not far off. Result = the bike I wanted sold out. Problem was I couldn't order the bike until I had the voucher but I had to choose the value of the voucher in advance and you can't go over it. :roll:

jthef

Work in a large company with a lot of kean cyclist all asking for it, but please use the cycle scheme so the can get the models they want etc.
Our HR is out soused so they get Halfords :evil: saying they will give better service and have better availability to shops to company sites etc.
So no new bike for me
they opened it up last year for a month and may open it up again this year some time?

fastbatard

After 2 years of 'considering' a C2W scheme my employer has finally started one. It's open for about 6 weeks. My order went in after 2 days

thistle_

pastryboy wrote:

Mine comes up every June

After a lot of badgering our company signed up with Cyclescheme but we could only enrol once a year.
I thought it was someone being awkward/digging their heels in but it seems we weren't the only ones so maybe there is some administrative issue that makes it easier to process a lot of applications once a year rather than spreading them out.

I'm pleased to say we can now sign up at any time, although paperwork is only issued on a monthly cycle (i.e. apply between 1st and 15th and they will do the paperwork on the 22nd etc.)

solsurf

I'm very lucky all of our finance department are keen cyclists and hassle me if I havn't renewed my voucher each year. "why havn't you got a new bike yet" however they are saying that they have had some indication that revenue and customs are sniffing around for a "real" valuation not just the 5% valuation that you pay at the end.

So my question is, is this the end of C2W scheme?

bumpitybump

solsurf wrote:

I'm very lucky all of our finance department are keen cyclists and hassle me if I havn't renewed my voucher each year. "why havn't you got a new bike yet" however they are saying that they have had some indication that revenue and customs are sniffing around for a "real" valuation not just the 5% valuation that you pay at the end.

So my question is, is this the end of C2W scheme?

For some reason our HR team have used the new rules on having to have a "real" valuation at the end of the one year hire scheme to close our C2W scheme after just running it for one year. The reason they give is that the new rule on having to have a "real" value means its unsure what the buy back cost will be after one year. Hence they are not running the scheme this year.

Personally I couldn't give a monkey's what the buy back cost is after one year as I'm keeping my first C2W bike as I actually use it for commuting.


PS.
when our HR department ran the first C2W scheme they gave about one months advance notice then ran it for one month.

lemon63

My wife's company has just announced they're going to start the C2W scheme, could she sign up to it to get a bike for me ?

desweller

solsurf wrote:

I'm very lucky all of our finance department are keen cyclists and hassle me if I havn't renewed my voucher each year. "why havn't you got a new bike yet" however they are saying that they have had some indication that revenue and customs are sniffing around for a "real" valuation not just the 5% valuation that you pay at the end.

So my question is, is this the end of C2W scheme?

Solution: Take it touring and wear the bugger out! That's what I plan to do with mine. It's gonna look like a 10-year-old bike by the time the lease period expires.

lardboy

lemon63 wrote:

My wife's company has just announced they're going to start the C2W scheme, could she sign up to it to get a bike for me ?

Legally? No.
Morally? Maybe.
Realistically? Probably.