Cycle to Work Scheme

Who is eligible?

Under our agreement with Cyclescheme, employees must also be over 18 and be on a permanent or fixed term contract that outlasts the 12 month hire period and where you will be receiving consecutive monthly payments for at least that 12 month hire period.  It is important that at the start of the process, consecutive monthly payments are visible on the Payroll system to enable us to proceed with certificate requests.  As the hire period of 12 months cannot, for legal reasons, be suspended or condensed this unfortunately means that we are currently unable to offer the scheme to Hourly Paid Lecturers/Instructors or TSU staff (and students) due to the way that the contracts are set up.

Interested? Here’s what to do in 8 easy steps:

• Locate your local partner shop from the link at top of the page.
• Visit the shop and choose your bike and related equipment – you should be given a paper quote.
• Using the link at the top of the page apply for certificate and electronically sign your hire agreement.
• HR will check your eligibility and approve your certificate this is done every Wednesday at midday.
• A secure certificate is sent out to you from HR (The turnaround from approval to receiving your certificate takes a minimum of 2 weeks).
• Redeem the certificate in the bike shop upon production of photographic ID.
• Make sure bike and related equipment is properly insured.
• Happy cycling!

What happens after my 12 salary sacrifice payments have been taken?

Please be aware that UWE’s involvement in the process stops at the end of the 12 consecutive monthly payments.

The Process

At the end of the hire period ownership of the equipment passes to Cyclescheme, who then contact you detailing 3 options:

1. Under a separate agreement with Cyclescheme, pay a small refundable deposit (3% or 7% of the certificate value*) and continue to use the bicycle for 3 years.  The monthly payments are zero. At the end of this period, Cyclescheme refund the deposit if you do not wish to keep the bicycle. No further action or payment is required if you wish to keep the bicycle.
2.  Take ownership of the bicycle by paying Cyclescheme a much higher valuation (e.g., for a one year old bicycle this would be 18% or 25%* of the certificate value in accordance with HMRC requirements).
3. Return the bicycle to Cyclescheme 

Employees can participate in another scheme during this period, as the agreement is between Cyclescheme and the employee - the employer does nothing more.

* The lower figure is for a certificate value of less than £500 and the higher one 
  for a certificate value of £500 or more. These figures include VAT.

Help! I need more information.

The Cyclescheme website have an extensive FAQ list. Please follow the link at the top of the page.

Changes to Cyclescheme

Cyclescheme has launched a new Market Value process in response to the August 2010 HRMC Employment Income Manual updates.

This process is effective immediately for any schemes where the initial “Hire Period” ended after 6 August 2010.

Please see the attached flowchart for more information.

Please note: Halfords are using “Cycle 2 Work” as part of their current advertising campaign. However, the Cyclescheme certificate that UWE issue are not valid at Halfords. Visit the Cyclescheme Website for a full list of participating local cycle shops.