Cycle2Work Scheme Minimum Wage Job

cooners

My partner wants to get an E-bike to get to work as they've cancelled all the services to her work anywhere near her start and end times (More important to get people around on there holibobs apparently). 
She works for the NHS and they offer a cycle to work scheme, she spoke to whoever she needed to and work and they gave her the green light to go ahead.
She excitedly spent the whole day looking for a bike, picking out accessories and sent off for the certificate. She's just got an email back from work saying they've tried to put it through but it won't except it because it puts her under minimum  wage!!!!
She's gutted, I'm trying to find a way around it, as I don't want to have to get up at 5:30am to drop her to work if I'm doing lates.
She also claims PIP and we basically have the money for the bike already at the discounted rate (I was just going to stick it in a pot and transfer her the deduction amount each month).
This would have saved her £400 but now because she doesn't earn enough an hour she's being forced to pay a premium, I love how all these schemes are rigged to help the well off whilst us peasants don't matter. Surely if she can prove she can afford it they should be able to go ahead. Is there any other way around this as £400 is a lot of money to loss over a technicality.
I probably do just about earn enough and my work do the same scheme, would it be possible for me to do it and give her the bike (I'd be honest with my boss, it's not worth getting sacked over).

QrizB

cooners said:

Surely if she can prove she can afford it they should be able to go ahead. Is there any other way around this as £400 is a lot of money to loss over a technicality.

It's not a technicality, it's the law.

cooners said:

I probably do just about earn enough and my work do the same scheme, would it be possible for me to do it and give her the bike (I'd be honest with my boss, it's not worth getting sacked over).

Once you've got the bike, while in principle you're meant to cycle to work on it, I've never known anyone check. I think you'll get away with it.

(A colleague bought a bike on the scheme and then sold it almost immediately. I don't think anyone ever found out but that's definitely something he could have been disciplined for, since the bike is the employer's property.)

Herzlos

You're supposed to 'mostly' use it for commuting but there's no way to check so I wouldn't worry about that part.

If you've got the money there, have you looked to see what you can get 2nd hand to at least see how well she gets on with it? Lots of bike charities have bikes you can rent long term too for that reason, and there should be some selling used bikes if you're wary about buying from Facebook.

cooners

Cheers I'll look into it. Like I said I'll always ask before doing anything that could land me in the poo, it would be obvious that I wasn't using it as I'd show up in the car everyday.
As for the law, it's a bit of a daft one. I can't se why they've set this up to exclude the people that could benefit most from it!!!

Herzlos

It with good intentions though; you aren't allowed to do anything that'd bring your hourly rate below the minimum, including salary sacrifice even though you sometimes benefit from it.

I agree that lower earners would benefit even more from cheap access to a bike, since those who save the most are the 40% taxpayers. But I think it should just be some discount scheme rather than tax break.

Have you checked how much she could get on the scheme without dropping below minimum, and see if you can get a cheaper bike?

Baldytyke88

cooners said:

She excitedly spent the whole day looking for a bike, picking out accessories and sent off for the certificate. She's just got an email back from work saying they've tried to put it through but it won't except it because it puts her under minimum  wage!!!!

It is ridiculous because your partner knows how much she gets per hour and that is not below the minimum wage.

You should lobby your MP or union about the interpretation of the rules.

If an employee is unable to participate in the standard Cycle to Work scheme due to NMW concerns, they may still be able to take advantage of Cyclescheme's "IntoCyclescheme" or similar schemes that are designed to be compliant with NMW regulations. Additionally, Cyclescheme suggests considering a bike rental option as a more affordable alternative

saajan_12

cooners said:

As for the law, it's a bit of a daft one. I can't se why they've set this up to exclude the people that could benefit most from it!!!

Not daft, its to protect employers from adding on deductions and fees onto an employee's payslip to pay them less and give them 'benefits'. Eg uniform fee, parking fee, lunch fee, etc. They could even convince the employee to confidently state they want said benefit. How would the govt know whether its really in the employee's interest? 

Similar to if a migrant worker said please please can you work there for £10 an hour because the employer can't afford the full NMW of £12 an hour and you'd rather a job than nothing.. the answer is no, there's a NMW for a reason. 

Baldytyke88

saajan_12 said:

Not daft, its to protect employers from adding on deductions and fees onto an employee's payslip to pay them less and give them 'benefits'. Eg uniform fee, parking fee, lunch fee, etc. They could even convince the employee to confidently state they want said benefit. How would the govt know whether its really in the employee's interest?

So they protect these lowly paid workers, but they can scam higher paid workers so long as it does not drop below the minimum wage. That does not make sense.

Username03725

You can easily buy a bike and never use it for your commute - there is no checking built in to the system, and no need to show any evidence. There's merely an expectation. Lots of people use the tax breaks to buy much better cycles or cycling gear with no intention at all of commuting on it so don't worry about it - it's a tax break you can take advantage of.

Buying second-hand is your other best option. There's plenty of choice on the usual sales sites, which will save you much more than the tax breaks ever would.

Nasqueron

Username03725 said:

You can easily buy a bike and never use it for your commute - there is no checking built in to the system, and no need to show any evidence. There's merely an expectation. Lots of people use the tax breaks to buy much better cycles or cycling gear with no intention at all of commuting on it so don't worry about it - it's a tax break you can take advantage of.

Buying second-hand is your other best option. There's plenty of choice on the usual sales sites, which will save you much more than the tax breaks ever would.

Though second hand from a shop is better than anywhere, you never know with private sellers if it's stolen, crashed (unless obvious) or how well it's maintained

Herzlos

Nasqueron said:

Username03725 said:

You can easily buy a bike and never use it for your commute - there is no checking built in to the system, and no need to show any evidence. There's merely an expectation. Lots of people use the tax breaks to buy much better cycles or cycling gear with no intention at all of commuting on it so don't worry about it - it's a tax break you can take advantage of.

Buying second-hand is your other best option. There's plenty of choice on the usual sales sites, which will save you much more than the tax breaks ever would.

Though second hand from a shop is better than anywhere, you never know with private sellers if it's stolen, crashed (unless obvious) or how well it's maintained

You can make a fairly educated guess. If it the owner knows a bit about it and when it was bought, has receipts etc, then it's probably fine. If it's mis-advertised, the seller knows nothing about it and it's really cheap it's probably not.  Stolen E-Bikes almost never come with the battery charger or key, either.

There are schemes like the bike register you can run serial numbers on but I don't think there's much uptake so no guarantee.

Telling the condition of the bike is a bit harder, especially when batteries are involved, though. basic checks like the brakes working, gears cycling through smoothly and no visible rust or damage should be fine though you can always get a bike shop to give it a safety check. It's definitely easier to buy one from a 2nd hand shop though as they'll usually come with some short warranty.

(I bought a bike on the cycle to work scheme and in 3 years it's never been used to get to work, though I've planned to a few times. I have used other bikes though, to be fair. There's no mechanism to check and realistically no-one cares).

@OP - what's the bike? If you're talking about saving £400 on min wage then I'm assuming it must be fairly pricey. We may be able to offer some alternative suggestions.