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The UK government is running a Fix Your Bike Voucher Scheme in England which allows members of the public to receive a voucher worth up to £50 towards the cost of repairing a bicycle.

At the time of posting, the voucher scheme has been hugely popular and all vouchers in the first and second releases have now been allocated. - this is two days after the second release.

What can I do to make sure I don't miss the next release?

The scheme has this FAQ page which also includes a question to the same effect, and what does it do with it? Of course it dodges it! Come on, it's the government, what did you expect.

Note: I know this scheme opens several ethical questions: Should I apply or leave it for those more in need? Why doesn't the government allow notifications, or a waiting list, or a prove-your-need bidding system? This question is not the place to discuss any of this.

I can think of the following example answers:

  1. A link to a website or forum where you can sign up to get notified,
  2. A way of "sensing" a release approaching - perhaps someone with an understanding of government and book-keeping mechanisms knows that it can only be on a Thursday?

As a secondary question, why does it seem nobody has ever asked this question on any forum? I thought everyone would want to know? Is my question illegal or against the (undefined) spirit of the scheme?

Also, I have reservations about the wording of the Title of my question, especially the use of a negative "how not to". If you can improve it, go for it, and remove this line from the Body too.

Finally, I am conscious if this question is fit for this SE, but people seem to have got away with some much worse questions.

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    The concept of discount coupons for bike repairs is quite rare. (I'd never heard of it before.) Nov 19, 2020 at 1:53
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    And beyond that, folks here are probably more eager to help you learn how to fix your own bike. Nov 19, 2020 at 1:53
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    The concept of discount coupons for bike repairs is quite rare - that's why I started with a link to the official website. I agree it's an unusual idea, but 100,000 vouchers were snapped up in a matter of hours, so it got some... traction quickly, to use a bike term.
    – pateksan
    Nov 19, 2020 at 2:01
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    I'd never heard of it, but does sound like the old parable "give someone a fish" vs "teach someone to fish" Perhaps lifehacks.SE might be more on topic? Despite this being about repair vouchers for bikes, its not really about bikes and the same basic "limited release" could apply to concert tickets or supermarket home-delivery slot bookings. Lets see what the community thinks.
    – Criggie
    Nov 19, 2020 at 5:45
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    I’m in the UK and I’m familiar with the scheme, I didn’t even try to get a voucher the 1st time and I’m unlikely to even try for any future vouchers. £50 won’t repair much and a basic service last time I looked was around £65
    – Dan K
    Nov 19, 2020 at 6:58

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The 'fix your bike scheme' forms part of the UK Conservative government's range of economic populist measures in response to covid-19 (which included 'eat out to help out', a scheme which gave discounts for restaurant meals to support the restaurant industry, but may have led to more covid cases https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/oct/30/treasury-rejects-theory-eat-out-to-help-out-caused-rise-in-covid).

Essentially the thinking was 'people will avoid public transport and we should encourage more cycling'. This may relate also to Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, getting covid-19, and feeling that his obesity was a factor in the severity of his illness (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/boris-johnson-obesity-coronavirus/2020/07/27/d5d0221c-cff0-11ea-826b-cc394d824e35_story.html)

Other measures have included 'pop-up cycle lanes' https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53105020 but many have been removed following complaints from motorists (https://www.worthingherald.co.uk/news/politics/pop-covid-cycle-lanes-chichester-removed-no-longer-needed-could-worthings-be-next-3014037 https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/remove-the-pop-up-covid-19-cycle-lanes)

The 'fix your bike' scheme is an appealing idea as there are probably a few million bikes around in bad condition that could be put back on the road but probably they aren't going to that.

Anyway, because 500,000 bikes (the total number of vouchers) is a lot to repair all at once, they are releasing them in batches of 50,000. Only around 4.5 million people in England ride bikes at least weekly

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so those vouchers all at once would be overwhelming given the normal volume of work for bike shops/mechanics

There have been two releases so far:

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bike-repair-vouchers-launch-in-england/

  • 28 July 2020 at 23:45
  • 16 November 2020 around noon (not announced in advance)

The long gap between the first two releases was due to the overwhelming demand for bikes globally due to covid-19, and massive demand for paid work, so adding more 'free' work into the system had no benefit to mechanics/bike shops at the top, since they had more work than they could perform.

Now that it is dark and cold in England, the bike industry, including repair, has calmed down massively, and government-funded repairs are more welcome.

However with several million cyclists, 50,000 vouchers will not go far.

Since the vouchers are 'free money', the government does not seem to be pre-announcing them, since they demand will vastly overwhelm supply.

I had a look on Twitter, and found:

It was also mentioned slightly earlier by Grant Shapps, Minister for Transport (12:31pm) https://twitter.com/grantshapps/status/1328314766121644032, and Cycling Industry News (12:06pm) https://twitter.com/cyclingindustry/status/1328308340292792320

This page should be updated with the new details:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/fix-your-bike-voucher-scheme-apply-for-a-voucher

A service such as this one, could keep track https://visualping.io/

The vouchers ran out by 9pm and there were also website problems https://twitter.com/transportgovuk/status/1328445587432337410

Given that there are 390,000 vouchers remaining, so 7 or 8 more releases, then you have some chance of getting them if you are subscribed to places that will notify you when the vouchers come out. Tracking the gov.uk page and also maybe https://fixyourbikevoucherscheme.est.org.uk/ for changes might give you a head start, as the pages will obviously be 'live' for some minutes before it is publicly announced. If you wait till the public announcement it's possible that the server will be overwhelmed....

I would note once you have the voucher to shop around carefully, as a lot of repair places will still charge you £££ even with the voucher. They don't expire till March. It is 'real money', albeit possibly paid slowly by the government, so don't be fobbed off with any place that wants to treat it like some kind of dodgy discount voucher - this is paid for by £50 (plus admin!) of taxpayers' cash, it's not like a groupon or something where there is a fat commission to a third party. Obviously though busy repair shops might still prefer upfront cash, hence shopping around....

Note also that the money is for repairs which must include some element of labour, can include parts, but not accessories. Those who are handy with a spanner looking to get some value out of the voucher might find that something like a new tyre (but only if the existing one has perished), chain or cassette would maximise the value of the 'parts' rather than the 'labour', but this is something to be discussed with the shop after you have obtained the voucher

Eligible Repairs include repairing or replacing: o tyres, tubes, wheels and related components; o braking system components; o transmission system components; o components for permanently fitted lighting systems. o other essential components which prevent safe use of the cycle e.g. deteriorated grips or saddle; • The following are not Eligible Repairs: o a sale of replacement parts without any repair work. o replacement or upgrade of existing safe and roadworthy components or of removeable lighting accessories.

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