I’ve had a bike every year since the scheme started and never rode to work once.
I'm sure I've seen some discussion on this before but up to date info would help me. My Daughter would like to get a bike but tbh it would be rarely if ever be used for commuting just recreation. I understand it would be 'manipulating' the system but her employer wouldn't give a toss one way or the other so could she use the C2W scheme? I ask this because I met someone with an ebike for sale who bought his through Network Rail and he only uses it for fun. Do many people do this?
I’ve had a bike every year since the scheme started and never rode to work once.
I'd be shocked if even 10% of cycle to work bikes were used to cycle to work.
I think the government are using the scheme more as a hope of keeping people fit, and knowing they wouldn't normally buy a bike of their own accord they thought of a way to incentivise them to do so.
Just my opinion though.
I'm one of the rare ones that use(d, no commuting at the moment) my bike for a partial commute, I cycle to the train station. Initially this was not the case. I just used the scheme to buy a bike for me and the wife.
I later had an epiphany that if I cycle to the train station, I could drink more after work!
Seems like an improperly regulated, Government waste of money.
Maybe they'll be giving away e-scooters next.
In theory you're going to use it for your commute, at least in part. In practice, nobody is going to check and as others have said, I suspect it's a small proportion that ever get used for actual commuting.
Dave E
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day
Strictly speaking it is fraudulent to get a bike on the scheme knowing full well that you won’t ever use it to commute. The chances are that you will never be penalised for doing this though, so it’s down to how comfortable you are with tax evasion.
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Great info guys. And thanks to those who have pm'd
You can lose your license for riding a bicycle under the influence of drink or drugs. Unlikely I know.
Aaaaannnd.........Right on Cue !!
I'm sure there's a whole long list of improperly regulated Government wastes of money but it possibly stops us being a nation of lard arses and keeps the cycle manufacturing industry in a job.
They're not given away, the cost is taken out of peoples wages (but I'm sure you knew all about that aswell)
I’ve been using the scheme for some years and use mine every day to C2W
For me it’s a great scheme and our one (RM) is excellent
Last edited by Kingstepper; 24th September 2020 at 19:37.
It's an incentive to make bike purchasing cheaper for taxpayers. No scheme can suit all purchasers. I took advantage of the scheme, use it for work every day, have a more reliable bike than my old second hand one and keep fit. If the scheme didn't exist there would be fewer cyclists.
Appreciate some like yourself use it properly but do seem many who just use it to buy a bike for leisure. If the idea is to encourage bike use for health reasons then include the low paid, the un-employed, the retired, pensioners the self-employed(?) etc. Many of these are also tax-payers of course.
Surely a more inclusive scheme could be devised.
https://www.quittance.co.uk/personal...cle-when-drunk
"Ignoring a red light risks a Fixed Penalty Notice of £30. Although a cyclist's driving licence cannot be endorsed for this or any other cycling offence, the Courts may disqualify a cyclist from driving a car. According to the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 - The court by or before which a person is convicted of an offence committed after 31st December 1997 may, instead of or in addition to dealing with him in any other way, order him to be disqualified, for such period as it thinks fit, for holding or obtaining a driving licence."
What is this "work" you speak of?.
I wouldn’t feel guilty about not using it to commute, as someone else mentioned it’s about encouraging activity.
I personally know of someone who spent his CTW voucher on a static turbo trainer. His rationale was that it was to maintain his fitness over winter so he could cycle to work next year!
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Don't forget you are only leasing the bike from the scheme for quite a long period, even after you've paid your employer back. Neither do all employers run the scheme regardless of size. The county council did, that is how I got mine, but the 40-school academy trust we moved to didn't.
Judging by the large trickle of new-with-box Bromptons that appear on gumtree I'd say some not only never ride them but sell them on immediately (even though the bikes aren't theirs to sell).