Employee benefits - healthcare?

I was part of a HSF Health plan at my old job, £23 a month and I had an allowance of £500 for eyecare which I maxxed out every year on new glasses and contact lenses. Claimed on it for two overnight hospital stays too so definitely come out better off from it.

I wouldn't want it as part of my pay package though as my pay is for me to do with how I please, put towards bills etc. The vast majority wouldn't gain any benefit from it so while I did well out of it a lot of others wouldn't and it would then be seen as an unnecessary cost when almost everyone would rather an extra £20-30 in their pay packet.

we have Vitality which is a good package - with not only medical covered but expenses in denistry and opticians - also a rewards and discount scheme for various items - pretty decent and def appreciated by those who have used it.

Also cycle to work scheme used by some but not widespread uptake

I have it and its a nice to have rather than anything more. One thing to be careful of is whether it counts as a benefit from a PAYE perspective. If it does then some of your employees might end up with less take home pay than before because of the tax on the benefit. If that happens then any positive from giving the perk will disappear very quickly and might have the opposite effect

Cheers. Yeah c2w is another option - I think for that I'll do a quick survey to see if there's any interest. There's only 25 people and I doubt there's enough interest to make it worthwhile, but worth checking.

With the medical stuff I'm trying to gauge whether it'd be seen as useful and appreciated, or a waste of money and people would rather have the £25/month.

We have private healthcare insurance via CIGNA (for which I pay a BIK per month before tax), but we also have an annual opticians eye tests and £125 towards new glasses. This is a reasonable, simple to administer benefit that is run through expenses (company credit card). The glasses benefit pays for about half of one of my lenses, but it's a nice touch.

We've basic Medicash cover - I've looked to use it, but despite covering a wide range of snake-oil, 'alternative therapy' guff, it doesn't cover audiology or counselling, both of which I would otherwise benefit from.
The app is shit, too.

Vitality is a good scheme - we were covered by it until we went bust - new Co can't afford it....

We have healthcare insurance via CIGNA

Not for much longer. They've pulled out the UK market

I get private health care from work which costs me a small amount in benefit in kind tax but we can choose to opt out. It's offered here as it's viewed as beneficial to the company because staff should be able to return to work sooner rather than just being nice to the staff.

With the medical stuff I’m trying to gauge whether it’d be seen as useful and appreciated, or a waste of money and people would rather have the £25/month.

If it's only 25 people, surely the obvious choice is to just ask them? And what they'd like to see instead/as well.

You think it would be that simple! But asking about this sort of stuff has it's downsides - some will be grumpy if we ask and then don't go through with it, some will say 'yes that sounds great' but will never use it. I was just hoping for a few perspectives from folk without a vested interest. Also it's useful to know about the tax implications - I'll have to check that, as it would certainly be unpopular if take-home went down!

We have BUPA at my work and it is considered a benefit to the company as much as it is to the employee as it gets us healthy and back to work sooner than if we didn't have it.

In my opinion it is well worth having for £25 a month if you have the option, I think we pay BIK on it but from memory it is only a few quid.

I was just hoping for a few perspectives from folk without a vested interest

A few pointers. (I've been working in private health insurance for the last 20 years)

You have a myriad of options to choose from

Employer paid for all
Employer paid just for employees, employee paid for dependants
Employee paid for all
Opt In
Opt Out
Cash plan
Full PMI
In patient only
Dental
Wellness
Virtual GP
etc

In short, it's a hugely complicated market and range of products. I would highly recommend speaking to a broker.

Benefits I can talk all day about! What could you offer...
Flex benefit scheme - employees choose from a range of bens some of which might save you (the company cost)
Life insurance
Cycle to Work
Pension scheme - up the Employer contributions?
Sell/buy holiday or have unlimited holiday
Cars - lease schemes, help to buy electric cars etc
Perks at work (store discounts)
Financial Education
Gym Memberships

Many things can be offered just need to work out what is benchmark in your industry.

We have a health plan which I have never used, mainly because I haven't had need to but also because I can't remember my login credentials and it seems resetting them doesn't work.

Aside from healthcare we also have something through Vivup which is salary sacrifice but for anything you can buy from John Lewis or Currys. There's a load of other things in there as well like discounts on gift cards, car hire, holidays etc.

I work for a company that provide BUPA cover for me and my spouse / dependants. There are limits on value of treatment but they seem fairly high to me - albeit if you had something serious I presume you’d burn through it quite quickly. I also have their Babylon app / online doctor which has been good in the last month as our NHS doctor has been essentially uncontactable by phone.

I haven’t the foggiest idea what it costs in BIK but unlike having it and have used it a few times. I’m sure now I’ve added my wife she’ll be all I’ve the benefit in due course too.

We have the basic package paid for by work - but are also given the option to upgrade it at our own cost.

I bet it’s a minefield from an employer’s perspective working out what to go for.

We've got a few different benefits - i've used childcare vouchers, C2W and the healthcare insurance over the years.
We've definitely had our moneys worth out of the health insurance - my wife had a thyroid Op 3 years ago which was £8k, and my kids have both had stuff done via it.

Does anyone have experience of administrating – or benefitting from – similar schemes, or other things an employer might offer to help make their staff happier?

No disrespect op, but you dont sound like you have much background knowledge in this area?

Its hugely complicated as described above with lots of options.

I would start by nailing down the company strategy on the benefits from their perspective.

Personally I wouldnt want just cover for Dentist, Physio etc. 1 because we already have an insurance policy for dentistry 2. I just pay for physio when I need it.

If you offered full BUPA at the minute you may attract many new staff, but what would be the financial cost to the company ?

My employer offer a scheme via SimplyHealth, I get a pre tax and NI cost of £12 I think which gets me the ability to claim back some costs of dental, physio, etc

We have the following health benefits (all optional):

Private Medical (with BUPA) - company pays £50/month for this and is a taxable benefit

Private dentist - I pay £24/month for this via salary sacrifice so saves a bit of NI

Employee/Spouse Health Cash Plan - I don't do this

Check4Cancer (various things depending on age) - I pay £14/month for this (again via salary sacrifice), first time I've selected it is this year and won't select it again for a few years...probably

Employee Health Assessments - I don't do this

Other benefits (all optional):

Contributory Pension

Share Purchase Plan

Life insurance

Critical Illness Insurance

Personal Accident Insurance

Income protection

Workplace ISA

Will Writing

Travel insurance

Car lease (for ULEVs)

Cycle to work

GymFlex

Techscheme (a Currys thing)

Hi OP

Recent employer change for me has opened my eyes to what some companies offer.

The previous place was pretty much our salary, BUPA for people above a certain grade and random BBQ once per month

New place is completely different and some of the things we get are below, all of these are no cost to us as employees, not on P11D. These are in addition to pay/pension/ etc

twice weekly lunch - Free - twice per week through "feeder" we get £10.00 per day to order and its delivered directly to the office. Am sure this part of the company encouraging staff to return to the office post-covid

access to completely independent financial advisor - think thats annual.

some wellbeing payment. up to a maximum of £150 per month thats paid directly to staff upon presentation of receipts. Not for medical expenses, but anything else, gym, physio (not medical apparently) cinema tickets, training shoes, etc etc

Hot breakfast roll on a Friday

Bupa for all

I was sitting in the induction with some other newbies, all who were on teh Graduate program and when we are being told this by HR im sitting chuckling away waiting for the catch but so far its all worked out well

We have private health care via Axa. All through my wifes organisation, we agreed to pay extra to cover me and children. The scheme has now been extended to cover SEN diagnosis e.g. ADHD, AS. The scheme has been extensively used by myself with no problems and I would recommend it.

Use to date:
3 x steroid injections to neck for herniated disc
2 x MRI (neck and lower back)
1 x surgery for neck
12 x physio (and counting) for neck and now back treatment.

My wife has ongoing physio as well.

I have no idea how much it costs my wifes employer, but for us its been a massive benefit.

Edit - double post / phat luddite fingers

Medicash here. Use it for dentist, optician, sports massage. Wouldn’t convince me to stay with employer at all but nice to have. Lots of staff don’t use it which personally I see as just being silly but there you go.

I'm looking at this too right now. There are a few platforms you can sign up for and build packages. None look perfect but certainly simpler than doing it a few years back directly with health co's or or old school brokers:

https://www.withjuno.com
https://www.thanksben.com

We're looking for combo of:

Private health (Fully comp inc in, out patient + physio)
Critical illness
Death in service

Optional:
Private health for dependants
Dental
Training and education
Gym or choice of health/sporting activity

@turin how does a lot of that not attract BIK tax? I'm a business owner and director and want to cover myself and family for dental, health etc (thanks to the current state of the services), but trying to find a way to minimise BIK if possible. Need to ask my accountant...

@mulv1976 Probably all done via a PAYE Settlement Agreement (PSA) with HMRC. Obviously if you are the business owner it won't help.

I've a very conflicted view on this. Itrs very easy to get it wrong. Example:

Use it for dentist, optician, sports massage....

....Lots of staff don’t use it which personally I see as just being silly but there you go.

Go to NHS dentist once a year costs me about £20, never have anything done, dont need it. Optician costs me nothing anyway. Never had a sports massage in my life.

I'd be a bit annoyed if I felt that the employer offering this to staff was eating into what I could be taking home as wages. I tend to very much just stick on the side of 'pay them more'.

However, partciularly as I get older, I do understand the argument against this, and for some of the of the benefits mentioned above. I think, having now worked at a variety of places for twenty odd years, it depends how well they
manage, fund it, and explain it out

I do remember having a very out-of character outburst at someone in HR once at an old employer long the lines of 'Well thats great then, I'll offer to pay my mortgage in high street shopping vouchers and I'm a valued employee credits, lets see how that goes'.

Its a very easy thing to judge very badly (and as you've only 25 people to ask you've no excuse!). For instance, offering a car scheme so people can buy a £60 thousand pound Tesla for £50 thousand pounds - how well do you think thats going to go down if half your staff are on minimum wage worrying about if their 15yr old Fiesta is going scrape though its MOT next month?

And the various healthcare options - again this an be very, very age dependent on how well its received.

My current employer does offer a number of benefits, most of which I care little for, some of which are useful. But, crucially - they do this ON TOP of paying industry leading wages.

Things in my experience that genuinely do help:

- Good life insurance
- Increased and/or more efficient tax contributions
- Buy/Sell leave programs.

The last one in particular I think its a very good one - during the Pandemic my employer couldnt give us the raise promised, so genuinely did the next best thing - they gave us th one thing we cannot buy ourselves - time, by giving us extra leave. This went down really well.

TLDR - Get it right, and its good. But very easy to get very badly wrong.

I've had a employee perk scheme that was such a shit portal and so restricted it was too much hasel to use. It's got to be easy to use and worth while. I looked into getting a eye test though work for instance, I could only use a select range of opticians, which were inconvenient to me geographically, were not my usual guy who I trusted and we're more expensive to start off with so there was pretty much minimal savings to be had.

Lots of staff don’t use it which personally I see as just being silly

I get full Bupa cover via work and have never used it. My wife and family are all NHS workers and believe private health services (particularly staffed by NHS trained people) are part of the problem. Hence they are dead against it.

i always assumed our healthcare (comprehensive and included, other than bik tax) was a benefit to the company so we didn't spend hours messing around with the nhs instead of working..

I’ve had a employee perk scheme that was such a shit portal and so restricted it was too much hasel to use.

perksatwork perchance? Basically but spending vouchers and get 1-3% discount back and the use the vouchers. Painful. By contrast we have had extensive use of CIGNA healthcare for myself, Mrs TiRed and the children when younger. I also get my eyes tested annually and would otherwise pay.

Thanks for all the thoughts. As someone pointed out, I'm new to this and coming at it from the employee side as much as management, and trying to pre-empt some of the obvious questions before asking around. One reason I'm not really pushing C2W is because it'd only benefit a handful of people, and as someone's said above, it could backfire if it's preceived as only benefitting a few.

We all work on computers all day long, so I think we ought to be covering peoples optician's appointments as a minimum. I guess we could just offer ability for people to claim on expenses rather than enroll on a scheme. We've a fairly young healthy staff so the more medical cover might not be so useful, and is prbably much more costly. I expect physio and sports therapy stuff might be appreciated by half, and ignored by the others.

We already have life insurance. Anything car/travel/transport related is not going to be appropriate as we mostly wfh these days. We introduced an option to buy an additonal week leave which has been well received. Attempting to offer more flexible working hours also, but that has been a right admin hassle keeping track of everything and avoid people gaming it too much to the detriment of the clients. I guess we'll find a balance at some point on that.

Cheers,

if your workforce are mainly computer based should the company not already be doing eyetests and eye care under the regs?

HSE.GOV.UK "https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg36.pdf"

AS for the rest of it.  Personally I would rather have the cash equivalent on my wages

@mulv1976

Afraid I dont know, sorry im just an end user. To be fair im new-ish to the company and not received a P11D so what Ive been told might not be the case, but from what colleagues have told me it seems to be the case