EBS

Having recently renewed our own insurances for buildings, contents, liability etc we were surprised to be asked as part of the process what measures our Board have taken to help reduce stress levels within EBS!

It was explained to us that the economic downturn will impact employees’ home and work lives and worried employees can make mistakes which give rise to an insurance claim or lead to absence or even illness.

Employers taking proactive steps to reduce this risk and provide support for their employees will benefit from cheaper insurance as well as creating a more supportive working environment.

Part of our solution was to provide an Employee Assistance Programme  (EAP) which supports employees with information, guidance,  advice and even one to one counselling on a range of areas in the workplace and at home.

When included as part of a death-in-service, income protection or private medical insurance scheme the cost of the scheme does not become a P11d benefit and can be made available to employee dependants.

If you would like more information or EBS to obtain terms for any of your risk benefit schemes, with or without an EAP  bolt-on scheme, please get in touch. As independent financial advisers we have access to the entire marketplace to secure the best terms available.

The Income Tax changes announced last year became effective for the first time this month seeing many employees lose their Personal Allowance (resulting in a marginal rate of Income Tax of 60%) as well as many others paying the new 50% rate of tax.

Awareness of these changes still remains extremely low (as we reported on this site last month) but the pain is starting to be felt. One small piece of good news is that these employees do still have potential options available to reduce the impact of these changes.

EBS offers tax clinics (on a group or 1:1 basis) to educate employees and provide them with a range of choices to minimise the impact. Having run a series of events for SAP (UK) we were delighted to receive this feedback from HR:

“Thanks for delivering the tax clinics, I have to say that ultimately demand far exceeded our initial expectations so we are glad that we made these available to our people. Thanks also  for delivering what was ultimately very complex & not great news for some people in a simple and pragmatic manner.”

To find out how we can help your higher rate tax paying employees, Contact EBS.

The Department of Work & Pensions recently published its research into the cost of workplace pensions in the UK and found that the highest charged schemes charging up to 1.5% of employer & employee funds each year, with the lowest taking only 0.15% each year. The research takes no account of any fees paid by the employer for advice and administration.

The range of charges quoted, highlighted by The Daily Telegraph on April 10th, mean the difference in someone with a £50,000 pension value paying anything between £75 and £750 per annum.

With employers now encouraged to review their workplace pension provision every three years to ensure that it remains competitive this research highlights the importance of doing so.

The Pension Regulator encourages employers to review not just the scheme’s charges – but also the investment choice & performance, the administration performance and the support and education which members are provided with – particularly as they approach retirement.

For an independent audit & assessment of your current provision, contact EBS.