Provision for fuel for company cars & TUPE

[shep1001]

Is the provision for fuel for your personal company car covered under TUPE?

We previously claimed business miles at the given AFR rates set out by HMRC for the vehicles we have. Our new employer has changed this to paying for all our fuel on a fuel card & we reimburse the company at the same AFR rates or not if we accept the BIK tax

I don’t give a monkeys as I have a diesel but several people have hybrids & the company is expecting them to pay back at the full rate which doesn’t reflect the fact they charge at home at their cost & then have to pay again for any personal miles driven.

I told them to stop charging and just run on petrol, nobody will accept this as they have invested in charge points, cables & energy schemes. The companies response is tuff sh*t the lawyers say we can do it!

Cars were selected under the old companies car scheme which basically said you can have whatever car you want on your grade but don’t bh about the BIK tax or fuel economy not meeting the AFR rates so you don’t end up out of pocket when driving company miles

I have tried to explain to HR that this is a poor move, everybody will fill up with the most expensive Shell fuel they can find and boot it about everywhere as fuel economy won’t matter.

Next thing will be trackers on cars we all have for personal use outside of work

[StevieBee]

TUPE rules dictate that the new employer may not unilaterally worsen the terms and conditions of employment of any transferred employee.

So whilst the new owners can do whatever they like in terms of how fuel costs are covered, the key is that employees should not be worse off regardless of the mechanisms being used. If they are, then the employee needs to demonstrate this and the company is then obligated to remedy it.

Having a choice of reimbursement or taking the BIK is actually quite advantageous to the employee and I wouldn't contest this too much!

[shep1001]

Thanks - only 1 person is better off taking the fuel card inc personal fuel, as they do a 200 mile commute when they come into the office which is most days.

Everybody else appears to only do 100/150 private miles a month so the near 3k tax levy is not worth it. Those with non hybrids like claiming business miles rather than reimbursement for private miles as driving like miss daisy & buying the cheapest fuel about, nets people quite a few quid each month within the framework of HMRC taxation rules, it’s ‘green’ too which is a bonus.

My major concern is most cars will be changed next year in Sept and everybody wants hybrid or full electric, me included to leverage the changes to BIK for company vehicles next year.

Our car/fuel policy is not set up for this as the taxation issue is mainly a problem for the U.K. not the rest of Europe so our employer doesn’t care but they are in for a shock as their refusal to be flexible will mean people will leave

[StevieBee]

Well, as I say, under TUPE, employees are protected from suffering any loss compared to previously. Simply put, if you're £50 a month down under the the new arrangements then the company is obliged to pay you an additional £50 to cancel that out. How it does this is up to them.

If you are concerned, I'd put a call into ACAS.

Do remember that the government would rather us not use company cars and the tax is structured to disincentivise their use. I don't anticipate this will change any time soon regardless of whether you're bumbling about in a hybrid or a 70s V8 muscle car.