Cycle to work scheme dishonesty

[jonnyboy666]

i have now had 2 bikes via the c2w scheme, it's not like i needed them but they get used, not for riding to work though they have been bought so that something cheaper can be used for work.

i see it as the winter trainer bike thing, your old race bike becomes your winter trainer when you get a new race bike, same for me with this c2w work thing.

i personally feel i didn't take advantage, i got the full wack of a grand both times, i got the tax break and after all the tax the government gets off me i don't feel guilty about getting me another shiney bike

also my workplace doesn't keep tabs on anyone who does or does not ride to work, and personally i ride maybe 25% of the time because i'd have to get up at 4.45 am to get to work on the bike and shower etc to start at 6am, so i tend to ride in in the summer for nightshifts as i have more time to get organised before starting at 6pm, other times the motorbike comes out so my commute is a mixed bag of transport.

with regards to the selling of c2w bikes, yes i think it is a piss take, not to mention illegal because until it is paid for it is steeling something that is on a hire-purchase agreement. it becomes yours after all payments are in at 1 year. people who buy them for personal use as opposed to commuting, fairplay if they're using it i say. people who get one then don't use it at all i think are just daft.

my 2p's worth.

 

[stewlewis]

My Co. isn't in the scheme but I'd have one if they were and not use it for work, I do probably 175 business miles a day as a field engineer.

Then again I'm a single, white guy, no debts, home owner, mid 30s, none smoker, none drinker, none drug taker, never been ill, private dental care etc. so there's nothing but the council tax discount handed out to me.

I have a few friends with IVAs, upgraded houses and good lifestyles while credit was cheap and they now they get the discounts to pay it off.

I have friends with 2.5 times my wage getting home insulation and heating, dental care and prescription because they have a toddler and she's pregnant.

I have friends with kids and council houses who work the bare minimum hours or short term cash job so not to interfere with the benefits.


The way I see it, I've paid out enough and never get a penny back in any way to cheer me up. I'd like a cheap bike.

 

[teebsgt]

I wouldn't personally abuse the system in terms of using the scheme to get a new bike, beacuse I don't ride to work and I'm quite conscientous like that. I think it is acceptable if a person buys a bike on scheme, but rides an older bike for security reasons - as people have said the government takes so much in tax already, why not give a minority of healthy commuters a small reward.

Also, if the government had any strict ideas behind the scheme surely they would have just had it as money off a small range of various hybrid/city/folding bikes if that was their purpose with the scheme. If they were genuinely so naive that people are claiming top range racers or DH bikes then more fool the scheme, right?

 

[FluffyChicken]

Surly nobody really needs a £1000 bike to get to work with.

If they capped it at say £400* then that bike would get them to work and back.
Maybe have another portion for accessories e.g. lights, lock, clothing etc...

My work does not run the scheme as they say it is too costly (they only run 28 school in the UK :roll: ) so think how many people across the county could benefit :roll:


And my Brothers work (in London) does not run the scheme as they have not place for the bikes to be parked.


*£400 used by looking at CRC for the cost of their Hybrid bikes, so they're not crap but not more than anyone needs.


How do people actually resell these bikes when from what I remember you are actually hiring the bike from the employer and do not own it unless they offer it to you at the end of the contract ?


The reason for the lack of checking up is, in my opinion, the cost of doing so. That would certainly outway that lost by people abusing the system.

 

[Easy_Rider]

My Co. isn't in the scheme but I'd have one if they were and not use it for work, I do probably 175 business miles a day as a field engineer.

Then again I'm a single, white guy, no debts, home owner, mid 30s, none smoker, none drinker, none drug taker, never been ill, private dental care etc. so there's nothing but the council tax discount handed out to me.

I have a few friends with IVAs, upgraded houses and good lifestyles while credit was cheap and they now they get the discounts to pay it off.

I have friends with 2.5 times my wage getting home insulation and heating, dental care and prescription because they have a toddler and she's pregnant.

I have friends with kids and council houses who work the bare minimum hours or short term cash job so not to interfere with the benefits.


The way I see it, I've paid out enough and never get a penny back in any way to cheer me up. I'd like a cheap bike.

I know how you feel, am in a very similar situation except I have been with my girlfriend for 14years and choose not to be married, no kids and have quite a bit of debts, very rarely use any medical services, which means we pay the most into the pot as a proportion of our income and get back nothing. It's not as though I feel i'm owed anything, but when you see the amount people take it does wind me up. For example I didn't realise child benefit is payable to everyone no matter how much they earn :? It's not that I feel we shouldn't help the poorest in our society, but bloody hell how much do some people take!

When I was made redundant I didn't receive a penny from the state which has shocked me (apart from my stamp being paid), worked since I was 12 on a paper round, worked part time during A-levels and Uni and worked the rest of my life. Spent 2 1/2 years working in Spain for a Spanish company paying full taxes into the "European pot" as it's always been sold to us but not realised that I need to pay the stamp twice in effect, had to pay it in Spain but I won't get anything there either. So when I was made redundant they looked at my 2 previous years of contributions and saw a 6 month gap and so "sorry you are not eligible for anything" not even the statutory 6months of help everyone gets. I seem to have fallen out of the system. Whereas someone who is not British but has two previous years contributions gets everything, and if they have kids...
So Mr Barclay and Mr Egg have taken a battering while trying not to drown.

I looked into getting help with insulation when they were advertising the discount as we have no heating, not eligible as we weren't claiming any benefits :?

Having said all that, I still wouldn't falsely claim for anything as I don't think I am owed anything, just wish the amount paid to people would be controlled somehow so we didn't have to pay so much into the pot in the first place.

 

[JohnH]

Surly nobody really needs a £1000 bike to get to work with.

Funny you should say that, FC. I was at an Indian restaurant last night celebrating a mate's birthday, when one of the lads sitting around the table (who works at a local college) said that he'd ordered a £2,500 LaPierre road bike thru the "ride to work" scheme. According to him the VAT's knocked off and he will have to pay half of the remaining balance.

I'm not suggesting that an £80 BSO from Asda should be the only thing on offer, but a £2,500 road bike seems a bit excessive for getting to work.

If the outgoing (going, gone) government had wanted to get people on bikes, be green, save money and create jobs it would have set up a nationwide agency to buy up serviceable secondhand bikes for a small price and paid a wage for unemployed/untrained people to learn how to fix them. Then the newly fixed bikes could have been offered to the general public with some kind of warranty.

That would have been a low-cost way to get people riding bikes, re-cycle existing bikes and train some young people in mechanical matters.

But, no. We had to have another poorly thought-out spending spree, the majority of which will have gone on foreign imports. :roll:

 

[brocklanders023]

Like I mentioned earlier, IMO the scheme is aimed at people who may not have got a bike before. If they didn't get a bike in the first place they wouldn't have paid the tax on it so the money would never have been seen. :? I don't believe an idea that gets people out on a bike is a waste of money myself.

 

[Neil]

Like I mentioned earlier, IMO the scheme is aimed at people who may not have got a bike before. If they didn't get a bike in the first place they wouldn't have paid the tax on it so the money would never have been seen. :? I don't believe an idea that gets people out on a bike is a waste of money myself.

Personally, I'm a skeptic that it does truly get people out on bikes.

Most who seem to go for it already have bikes, and use them. So if it's aimed at people who haven't already got a bike, my gut feeling is that it failed - most that use it seem regular cyclists, just looking for easy money for another acquisition.

Some buy bikes on the scheme, use them briefly, then abandon using them (for probably largely the same reasons they weren't regularly cycling beforehand).

Perhaps there is a select few, who truly benefit, and it has been the very thing that's got them cycling regularly.

 

[velomaniac]

My work has a health at work policy and does the bike to work scheme. They seem to be happy in the knowledge that the person has a bike that might be used to make them healthier which could benefit them, the employer. Plus its no worse than the car scrappage scheme to the taxpayer in fact considerably less bad.

 

[P20]

Bike to work is propping up a lot of LBS. Aside from the morales, if it gets people biking, then it can only be a good thing. It may also keep you LBS in business, handy the next time you need them