Almost one in four Cycle to Work Scheme users (39 percent) began cycling to work for the first time after joining the scheme, indicating that the benefit has had a strong behavioural impact, researchers have found.
In addition to boosting the number of ‘newly commuting cyclists’, the scheme has increased the number of employees that use their bike for leisure and exercise.
The evaluation of the scheme, conducted by Ipsos for HMRC, found that 38 percent of users said they already cycled to work before signing up, but the percentage of people who reported that they cycled to work after joining the scheme was much higher, reaching 74 percent.
Almost seven in ten (69 percent) users said they planned to keep cycling to work using the bike they obtained through the scheme in the next six months. And nearly three quarters of users (74 percent) reported that they cycled at least part of the way to work.
Beyond commuting, 51 percent of users said that they cycle more outside of their commute since using the scheme.
The evaluation was conducted to give HMRC an understanding of the demographics of users, the scheme use process, user impact, and to assess how appropriate the scheme is in its current form.
Results showed that typical users are men, white, aged 25–54, London-based, in professional occupations with above-median earnings.
Researchers found that clear employer communication was critical to scheme take up as most participants said they had heard about the benefit through their employer or colleagues. Researchers said this means that effective internal promotion is crucial for uptake.
The scheme elicited praise from employees and employers for its simple administration, although smaller employers reported challenges around managing the end of the scheme without a provider.
Users said that their top motivations for using the Cycle to Work scheme were to save money and spread the cost.
However, there were also barriers to scheme take up, with journey length, road safety concerns, and already owning a bicycle, highlighted by respondents even though these are not direct issues with the scheme.
Users said they preferred the current scheme design, which works via salary sacrifice and offers tax benefits, over alternative mechanisms. This was because it is relatively straightforward and offers financial advantages.
Employers valued the scheme for being easy to run, aligning with benefit packages, and supporting corporate social responsibility goals like environmental sustainability and employee wellbeing.
Researchers found that employers that currently do not offer the benefit would be more likely to introduce it if employees requested it and if they had better information about how it operates.
For the evaluation, researchers surveyed 12,790 UK adults (aged 16 and above) about their awareness of the scheme and whether they had used it. They also interviewed 438 individuals who had used the Cycle to Work scheme between 2017 and 2022, as well as 4,555 eligible individuals who had never used the scheme. They spoke to employers who offered the scheme and those that didn’t.
