FAQ HUB
Find everything you need to know about the cycle to work scheme and Cycle2work here. If you require more details or can’t find what you need, please speak to our team who will be happy to assist you.
Cycle2work Hub
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know.
What is it
Cycle to work is a government initiative that encourages more people
to commute by bike, enabling people to make healthier choices and
reduce the UK’s carbon footprint.
The scheme is run
via salary sacrifice, allowing employees to make savings of up to
57%* on the cost of a new bike and accessories. Employers will also
make savings of 13.8% through National Insurance contributions.
*Cycle2Work savings based on an additional rate tax
payer using Cycle2Work Exclusive Discount.
A salary sacrifice arrangement is an agreement between an Employer and an Employee, to reduce an employee’s pay entitlement in return for a non-cash benefit.
- Cycle2work is cost free, easy to implement, and achieves fantastic results for your business and employees.
- Cost free benefit that will enhance your corporate benefits package to attract and retain employees.
- Improve business productivity by improving employee wellbeing.
- Contributing to your companies ESG plans by reducing your carbon footprint.
- Save thousands of pounds in employer National Insurance contributions
- Save money and spread the cost on a brand-new bike and accessories, thus cutting the cost of their daily commute.
- Improved mental health, mood, and sleep quality by reducing stress.
- Increased fitness levels, better immune systems to prevent illnesses like heart disease and cancer.
- Reducing unnecessary spending on fuel, parking, public transport, and gym memberships
- Saving hours waiting for public transport and maximising time by enabling employees to work out on their commute.
Halfords for Business is the B2B arm of Halfords Ltd. Working
directly with business of all sizes and Benefit Providers, we help
business motivate, attract, and retain employees & customers
with market-leading Cycling & Motoring Employee Benefits and
solutions.
Halfords for Business, part of the Halfords
Group, deliver services and products through our own network of 1200
stores, garages & mobile expert vans nationwide.
- Cycle2work is geared around our customers, that’s you and your workforce.
- It’s low admin for you and achieves the maximum savings for your team. But we offer a lot more than that.
- Free of charge marketing via the employer portal
- Free Events to engage and excite your employees.
- We offer credit and proforma Cycle2Work accounts to ensure all types of business can avail of Cycle2work.
- For business that have completed a credit check and have been assigned a credit Cycle2work account, we offer retrospective invoicing.
- For businesses on Cycle2Work credit accounts, employees can have same day access to bikes and accessories. Upon approval, the Letter of Collection is sent automatically to the employee.
- Inclusive solutions to make a bike available to all employees (including those who are not eligible for a salary sacrifice scheme).
- Scheme Protection, Halfords covers the deficit from early leavers meaning your business won’t be out of pocket.
- Management Information, data to measure the return on investment of your scheme and highlight ways to continuously improve it.
- Easy end of hire, the process is fully managed by us, including our zero-cost extended hire.
The only cost is the cost of the total value of Letters of
Collection which is recouped by the employer from the employees’
salary sacrifice deductions.
Employers who register to
Cycle2Work through the website, will have scheme protection as
standard. Scheme Protection negates the risk of early leavers from
your scheme. Halfords covers the deficit from early leavers meaning
your business won’t be out of pocket.
This service
protects employers against the risk of early leavers, meaning if an
employee were to leave the organisation and insufficient funds were
available from their final pay then Halfords would make up the
deficit. This service has a modest admin fee which is easily covered
by the employer NIC savings.
How does it work
Employers can set their own scheme limit, there is no longer a
restriction of £1000, meaning employees can choose from a wider
selection of bikes and safety accessories including a much wider
range of e-bikes which was a driver in the DFT updating the guidance
in 2019.
As Halfords ltd have the required FCA
permissions in place, we are extending this offering to our clients
enabling them to set what limit they see right for their
workforce.
Halfords Limited is a founding member of the
Cycle to Work Alliance (a policy-focused coalition of the five
largest providers of the Cycle to Work scheme). This ensures we are
leading regarding any scheme policy updates and changes.
The scheme is run via salary sacrifice, allowing employees to make savings of 28%, 43% and up to 47% (based on employees’ personal tax bracket) off the cost of a new bike and cycling safety accessories. Additionally, employees can also access Exclusive Cycle2Work discounts of up to 20% on a range of Halfords bikes - meaning employees can make savings on top of savings! The employer also makes savings of 13.8% through National Insurance contributions.
As prescribed by
UK Government cycle to work implementation guidelines, under our standard Cycle2Work Salary Sacrifice, Halfords remains
the owner of the bike during the initial hire term. At the end of
the initial hire term, Halfords shall provide transfer of ownership
options to the employee.
Employees on Net Deduction
arrangement will own the bike outright from collection of the cycle.
Simply complete the
online form
to register your business for Cycle2work.
There are 3
steps to creating your account all housed within our online
portal.
1) Add your company information
2) Confirm
your company’s main contact details (includes name, job title,
telephone number, an email address, and a secondary email address
for invoicing purposes)
3) Sign the supplier agreement
Once
we have checked the details you have submitted and have ran a
company credit check, we will assign you with either a credit or
proforma Cycle2work account.
Please allow 24 hours for
your account to be activated and your scheme credentials shared via
email. This may be longer over weekend or bank holiday periods.
The Hire Agreement is the contract between Halfords and the
employee. Halfords will enter into a Hire Agreement directly with
the Employee and will hire Products to the Employee in exchange for
their Letter of Collection (LoC). The Employee will pay for the
Letter of Collection via a Salary Sacrifice Agreement entered
directly with the Employer. The Employer will pay Halfords for the
value of the LoCs.
The hire term with Halfords ltd has a
12-month term.
We offer a self-serve application portal enabling customers 24/7
access to the portal. Employers are fully in control of the
implementation process and milestones.
There are 3 steps
to creating your account all housed within our online portal.
1)
Add your company information
2) Confirm your company’s main
contact details (includes name, job title, telephone number, an
email address, and a secondary email address for invoicing
purposes)
3) Sign the supplier agreement
Once we
have checked the details you have submitted and have ran a company
credit check, we will assign you with either a credit or proforma
Cycle2work account.
Please allow 24 hours for your
account to be activated and your scheme credentials shared via
email. This may be longer over weekend and bank holiday periods.
When
setting up the parameters of your scheme, assigning roles to your
colleagues, and making approvals you will receive clear instructions
via email and video links to guide you through the process.
Our aim is to get your scheme up and running within 24 hours or less. This may be longer over weekend and bank holiday periods.
Our scheme aims to minimise the admin tasks for employers and
maximise savings for employees.
The administration
required by the employer includes, marketing the scheme to employees
(all resources can be downloaded from the portal), review
and approve employee applications, and process invoices for the
scheme.
The employee makes their
application online. From start to finish the application should take no longer than 5
mins.
To get started employee’s will need the employer
code, their payroll number, and an idea of the value of the bike and
accessories they are applying for.
As part of the
application, employees must verify their email. The employee can
then proceed with their application adding the final personal
information, the amount that they are applying for and proceed to
sign the salary sacrifice and hire agreements.
Their
application will remain pending until approved by the employer.
Credit Cycle2work accounts
If you have a
Cycle2work credit account, employees can apply and redeem their LoC
on the same day (subject to employer approval). The employer checks
eligibility and approves the application on the portal to instantly
release the letter of collection (LoC) to the employee. This is 3-4
weeks quicker than other scheme providers who require invoices to be
paid before goods can be released.
Proforma Cycle2work accounts
If you have a proforma account and you have ‘pre-approved’ an
employee, LoC’s will be released as soon as 1) Payment is made 2)
You have updated the status of the employee’s application as
‘approved’ on the employer portal following payment confirmation
from us. Once the employee application is set to ‘approved’ we will
instantly release the letter of collection (LoC) to the employee.
They will be able to redeem their LoC on that same day.
Yes, we work with all leading benefit providers and have market leading processes in place to get your employees onto bikes as quickly as possible. Please contact your benefit provider to arrange the set up.
Yes, our cycle to work offering is available across all key public sector frameworks, either directly or through benefit providers. Frameworks our services can be found on are ESPO, CCS, NPS and YPO.
Our aim is to minimise the administration for our clients and
maximise savings for the employee.
One of the ways we do
this is by managing the full end of hire process. Halfords will take
full responsibility for this process directly with The Employer’s
employees.
At the end of hire period Halfords will offer
your employees 3 compliant options:
1. Zero cost Managed
Extended Hire (Most popular option with employers). The employee
will have the option to enter a zero-cost extended hire arrangement
directly with Halfords until the value has deprecated to a
negligible point aligned with the HMRC cycle to work matrix table,
when Halfords will then transfer ownership of the bike. This
solution eliminates admin for the employer, maximises the savings
through the scheme for the employee, and permits them to join the
scheme again the following year. Halfords do not charge for Managed
Extended Hire which can save your employees a further 3%, 7% or 10%
compared to other scheme providers.
2. Fair market value
payment. The employee can take immediate ownership of the bike at
the end of initial hire term by making a payment direct to Halfords
for the fair market value of the bike. This value is defined by the
HMRC matrix table which at the end of the initial hire term is 25%
(Bike initial cost greater than £500) or 18% (bike initial cost less
than £500) of the bikes original cost.
3. Return the
bike. Employees also have the option to return the bike at the end
of the initial hire term to their local Halfords store where it will
be safety checked and donated to ReCycle where bikes are refurbished
and sent to Africa where they are essential means of transport
across rural countries.
We will reach out to employee
using the details we have on file to inform them that if they do not
select an option from the list above within 30 working days, they
will be automatically enrolled onto the zero-cost extended hire
arrangement.
The Employer can download a payroll report from the portal to set up the salary sacrifice deductions in the form of a payroll report (CSV file). This information is available 24/7 for the employer.
It is the employee’s responsibility to insure the bikes and goods not the employers. We offer all scheme members the option of 14 days free insurance through our trusted partner.
Added service
We offer a fully compliant option for employees who are not eligible
for a salary sacrifice arrangement (for examples those on NLW, NMW,
fixed term contract, apprentices etc). On our online portal, the
employer can refer an employee’s application to a
Net Deduction
arrangement at point of scheme eligibility checks been carried out.
This means that the employee can benefit from the cost
of the bike being spread over 12 months – making payments more
manageable, plus get get exclusive access on a range of bikes with
up to 20% off.
If an employee does not wish to choose one
of the bikes on offer, they can still opt in, spread the cost,
choose from our entire Halfords and range and benefit from all sales
and promotional prices within Halfords and Tredz
It is
important to note that employees will not make any Tax or NI savings
but will own the bike outright from collection of the cycle
We will provide multiple channels of support including training video guides. Instructions are provided at each step to guide your team from start to finish. There is a dedicated Halfords for Business contact for any additional support if needed and key contact information will be found on your employer portal.
A strong marketing campaign is paramount to the success of your
scheme and here at Halfords we have a great track record of
achieving the highest levels of uptake through our well-structured
engagement plan to speak to all employees.
From the
portal you can select and download a range of marketing collateral
to promote your scheme:
– Launch Poster A3/A4
– A5
Flyer
– FAQ’s
– Intranet Documents
– Pop Up/Pull Up
Banner
– Email signature
– Intranet banner
– Digital
payslip inserts
– Screensaver
On-site events
are a great way to engage your employees. To help you promote your
scheme, your employees can join
live and pre-recorded webinars.
If you have been designated a Client Development
Manager assigned for your account, please contact them directly for
booking an onsite roadshow.
Our
website
is the best point of call for employees as most answers to their
questions can be found there.
For further support
employees can contact our Customer Experience Team
(cycle2.work@halfords.co.uk or telephone 0345 504 6444).
The
team are available 08:30-17:00 Monday-Friday. Outside of these hours
employees can contact the Halfords customer service or our online
chat facility via Halfords.com.
Via the Halfords website
we offer many practical “How To” videos to support the cycling
experience.
How To Guides | Halfords UK
Following client feedback, we have developed and launched our unique
scheme Protection solution. Scheme Protection negates the risk of
early leavers from your scheme. Halfords covers the deficit from
early leavers meaning your business won’t be out of pocket.
This
service protects employers against the risk of early leavers,
meaning if an employee were to leave the organisation and
insufficient funds were available from their final pay then Halfords
would make up the deficit. This service has a modest admin fee which
is easily covered by the employer NIC savings. For more information
visit our
Scheme Protection page.
Employee Questions
Through our cycle to work offering all types of compliant bikes are available including road, touring, hybrid, mountain, leisure, electric, foldaway, classic, adaptive and cyclocross.
Yes, it is compliant with HMRC guidelines that employees can apply for cycling safety accessories without a bike.
This is subject to an employer’s specific scheme criteria but in
most cases, employees can avail from our cycle to
work scheme “Cycle2work” every 12 months.
On occasion
and employer may decide to allow an employee a second application
during the year should the employee have a remaining allowance
within the application spend limit.
(i.e., a scheme limit of £3000, the employee’s first application
was £1500 then they would still have £1500 to apply for during the
12 months. This is at the employer’s discretion.)
Yes, they can take part in Cycle2work.
Our nationwide redemption and online options give your employees
access to 98% of the cycling brands available on the UK market.
Cycle2work
redemption locations include:
– 400+ Halfords stores
–
Tredz and Halfords (for online redemption)
– Hundreds of
independent bike shops
Employees can use our
online store locator
to find their nearest stores by postcode.
When redeeming
instore, either from Halfords or from an Independent Bike Shop in
our network, employees simply need to present their Letter of
Collection (LoC) and a form of ID to collect their bikes and cycling
accessories.
When redeeming a Letter of Collection (LoC)
online at Tredz or
Halfords, employees simply
need to add their chosen bike and accessories to the shopping basket
and at checkout, under payment options, use the option to ‘redeem a
cycle to work voucher’ then enter their LoC details to proceed.
Bikes
from orders from the Tredz website are delivered directly to the
employee’s home address fully built free of charge.
Bikes
from order from the Halfords website will be fulfilled through our
click and collect option and employees will need to select their
most convenient location to collect the bike
If an
employee is unable to source their desired bike locally or require a
specially adapted bike, they can speak with our team, who will be on
hand to source their desired bike or will arrange to speak to our
network to source an equivalent model
Yes, employees can cancel their application within 14 days of making their application. Instructions on how to do this will be included within the agreements issued to the employee after application. If the employees has collected their chosen products and cancels their application, they will need to return all goods in a new and saleable condition.
Rules & Finance
All UK based organisations can offer the Cycle to Work scheme if they are PAYE.
No, you do not need HMRC to approve your cycle to work scheme. For HMRC guidance on this, please visit https://www.gov.uk/guidance/salary-sacrifice-and-the-effects-on-paye
No, aligned with the cycle to work guidance Halfords ltd have the required FCA permissions in place, we are extending this offering to our clients enabling them to set what limit they see right for their workforce.
The cycle to work scheme is governed by HMRC and the Department for
Transport. Principal rules of compliance include:
1) The
scheme should be open and available to all colleagues
2)
Transfer of ownership of any products cannot be assumed
3)
Any salary sacrifice deductions must not drop salaries below the
National Minimum Wage (please see our Cycle2work page for more
details on our
net deduction scheme
ensuring all employees can avail of a bike).
4) The
salary sacrifice arrangement will be for at least 12 months.
For
more information visit
Cycle to work scheme implementation guidance for employers –
GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Yes, we can work with your chosen third-party finance provider. Financing your scheme can be a great way to spread the cost of running your scheme in-line with your salary sacrifice deductions, to avoid the upfront initial cost of the letters of collection.
The salary sacrifice term is determined by the employer, typically
this is over a 12-month period, but it can be spread over 18 months
or more if the employer wishes.
The hire term with
Halfords ltd has a 12-month term.
What if
When an early leaver ceases employment, they are no longer eligible
to benefit from any Tax or NI savings from the scheme.
Any
remaining balance owed by the employee should be deducted from their
final net salary. Should there be insufficient balance to cover the
balance then the employee should make a payment by another means to
the employer for the total for the remaining salary sacrifice
amount. This is outlined in the Salary Sacrifice agreement which the
employee agrees to upon making their application.
Following
client feedback, we have developed and launched our unique scheme
Protection solution. Scheme Protection negates the risk of early
leavers from your scheme. Halfords covers the deficit from early
leavers meaning your business won’t be out of pocket.
This
service protects employers against the risk of early leavers,
meaning if an employee were to leave the organisation and
insufficient funds were available from their final pay then Halfords
would make up the deficit. This service has a modest admin fee which
is easily covered by the employer NIC savings. For more information
visit our
Scheme Protection page.
During maternity leave and any long-term illness leave (when the employee is not travelling to work) the salary sacrifice deductions should stop until the employee returns to work. The salary sacrifice deductions can then resume.