
We’re all pretty fed up with hearing about interest rates, so-called price caps, and the next industry that’s giving our moth-bitten wallets a beating. So, the less we focus on the doom and gloom of the cost-of-living crisis, the better. What people need are solutions. And while we can’t wave a magic wand to take it all away, as employee benefits providers, we can help you pass on some savings that’ll help stretch your teams’ salaries. As well as practical support.
The elephant in the room: money
Not many of us Brits feel comfortable talking about money. The Money Charity has reported the following statistics in August 2022:
£2,229: Average credit card debt per household in June 2022
9.72%: Change in outstanding credit card balances in year to June 2022
10.1%: Inflation rate in the year to July 2022
£3,855: Total unsecured debt per UK adult in June 2022
327 people a day were declared insolvent or bankrupt in England or Wales in April to June 2022. This was equivalent to one person every 4 minutes and 25 seconds.
It costs an average of £24.44 per day for a couple to raise a child from birth to the age of 18. For a lone parent family, the cost of raising a child comes to £29.50 per day.
Let’s have a look at how we can all do our bit to help one another out.
Promoting financial wellbeing
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you can feed him for life.
Yes, that’s right, we’re opening with a cheesy but incredibly accurate proverb. Another good one here is the classic: a problem shared is a problem halved.
One of the big problems with money is not feeling comfortable talking about it, and not knowing how to manage it. Many of us are guilty of spending extra money when we’re feeling low. But by getting in control of our finances can be a real lift.
All our perkpal customers get access to free financial advice. These tools include:
- Debt management services
- Credit scores
- Money advice
- Tax refund assessment and claim management
What’s more, our inbuilt communications suite makes it super simple to help raise awareness of these services.
Income protection insurance
No one can help having health problems. Depending on your sick pay policies, you may want to look at offering income protection insurance. These policies help anyone who must take an extended period off work, due to poor health, injury, or disability.
Support for mental health
We recommend taking a closer look at your private medical insurance policies and making sure they cover your employees for mental health conditions.
As standard, we offer Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP), they cover:
The employee, dependents over 16 years old and partners living at the same address are usually all covered. Areas may include:
- Family and relationship support
- Bereavement
- Mental health support, such as stress, loneliness, anxiety, and low mood
- Child, dependent and elderly care
- Domestic violence
- Health and lifestyle
- Bullying and harassment
- Money management and debt advice
- Legal rights
Stress management and wellness days
Many companies are offering wellness or mental health days to help combat stress and promote wellbeing.
Mental health days are all about employees taking a day off from work as sickness absence in order to do something good for their mental health and wellbeing, to prevent their mental health from deteriorating which may affect their ability to work.
This simple token can go a long way towards supporting your employees and improving morale.
Discounts on home essentials
Of course, getting instant gratification of making savings on daily goods can really help lighten the load. We offer discounts on big household names, such as supermarkets, high street and online retailers. So, getting the kids kitted out for their next growth spurt, that new winter coat, or treating a loved one needn’t break the bank.
NEW: Perkpalpro
Did you know we now offer a fully integrated HR system? Perkpalpro allows you to manage holiday bookings, absences, your employee database, reporting, and document store. Find out more about upgrading your existing perkpal account to perkpalpro.
Book a demo today
Book a demo of our platform, chocked full of employee discounts, freebies, and benefits, and find out how we could help your staff make fantastic year-round savings and improve financial wellbeing.