Change of circumstances - salary sacrifice

You may keep the car during your parental leave and the Salary Sacrifice will continue whilst your salary is above the agreed sacrifice.

If your pay moves to Statutory Pay or if your regular sacrifice would take your net pay below the National Minimum Wage or Lower Earnings Limit thresholds during this time, you may be entitled to return the car without penalty as per the Early Termination circumstances in your driver handbook, or simply keep the car free of charge for a maximum of 12 months from the start of your leave.

If your lease expires during parental leave, you should return the car.

Please note that you are not able to use both options at the same time i.e. take the payment holiday of 12 months, then return the vehicle without penalty following this.

You may keep the car during a period of Long Term Sickness Leave and the Salary Sacrifice will continue whilst your salary is above the agreed sacrifice.

If your pay moves to Statutory Pay or if your regular sacrifice would take your net pay below the National Minimum Wage or Lower Earnings Limit thresholds during this period you may be entitled to return the car without penalty as per the Early Termination circumstances in your driver handbook, or simply keep the car free of charge for a maximum of three months from the start of your leave.

If your lease expires during Long Term Sickness Leave, you should return the car.

If you’re on a career break or any other long-term leave, there are two options:

1. You can decide to leave the scheme

If you decide to leave the Scheme, Early Termination charges will apply.

2. You can continue to use your car and keep the Salary Sacrifice running

If this isn’t possible because you’re unpaid, receive only Statutory payments, or fall below the National Minimum Wage, you must make arrangements to reimburse your employer directly (e.g. cheque, Direct Debit, standing order) so you may continue to use your car. This option will be at your employers discretion. This reimbursement will be the same gross salary that was previously sacrificed, but you won’t benefit from the reductions in Income Tax and National Insurance.

What happens if my circumstances have changed or I am having difficulty affording the lease?

We understand that sometimes circumstances can change in unexpected ways, for all sorts of reasons, and we want to do whatever we can to support.

There are lots of great external resources and services available for anyone who needs support, especially as we can’t give financial or other types of advice. You might find support via:

If you are looking to explore ending your existing lease contract, you can submit an early return request, which will be handled by one of our end of lease specialists.

We can provide advice about the terms of your lease contract with your employer, including about what potential costs are or aren't covered within your lease contract.

With a Salary Sacrifice contract, the lease is held between your employer and Octopus EV; we, therefore, need their approval to make any contract changes.

We will ask you if you are comfortable with us reaching out to your employer to discuss your request, and what information you are willing for us to disclose in the process.

Alternatively, you can also reach out to your employer to see what support they are able to provide.

There may be charges associated with ending your lease early.

Your Driver Agreement will confirm if early termination waiver cover is included, and your Driver Handbook will explain under which scenarios your employer may look to apply the early termination waiver to a confirmed early termination request, at their discretion.

This means that Octopus EV cannot confirm if your employer will apply their early termination to any potential or confirmed early termination. We recommend talking to your employer if you have any further questions about their early termination waiver.

If you’re ending your lease early due to changing your employment, the vehicle needs to be collected no more than 28 days before the final date of employment. This is because your Salary Sacrifice contract is closely tied to your employment contract, and so we need to coincide these dates ending. Returning the vehicle prematurely is considered a change in circumstances, and so may incur Early Termination fees. We offer this 28 day grace period in order for the driver time to resolve issues.

If you would like to explore the option of ending your lease early, fill out the form below and our customer operations team will get in touch.

Request to end your lease early.