All articles by Jennifer Paterson – Page 186
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Liverpool Vision introduces healthcare cash plan
Liverpool’s economic development company, Liverpool Vision, has introduced a healthcare cash plan for the first time. Through the cash plan, which is provided by Medicash, Liverpool Vision’s 50 employees will have access to a range of benefits, including: on-site screening, discounted gym memberships, and the Best Doctors service that allows ...
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Amor Group and Haldanes select new benefits provider
Amor Group, the business technology company, and Haldanes stores, the retailer and supermarket chain will be using Kudos Financial Services’ employee benefits division to provide a range of advice, administration and internal communications.While the Amor Group contract is unspecified, the Haldanes contract will continue for two years.Jim Tennent, Kudos’ managing ...
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Multiplex expands its corporate healthcare offering
Multiplex Healthtrust Management Services has added a range of new services to its corporate health trust product, Healthtrust.The services include: on-site health screening on the employer’s premises with four options available; call a doctor service, where scheme members can call from anywhere in the world for consultation with a general ...
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Research: Employees move on as pay freezes are lifted
Even though a quarter (24%) of employers who implemented pay freezes during the recession have now lifted them, 41% of office workers surveyed expect to move jobs over the next twelve months, according to a study from international recruiters Badenoch & Clark.The study, which polled more than a thousand office ...
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Barclays responds to claims they raided employees’ pensions
A report in the Daily Telegraph on 29 March accused Barclays of raiding the pension benefits of 17,000 staff members to offset the bonus tax for its high-earning investment bankers.Details unearthed by the Telegraph from the annual accounts show that the bank made a £371m profit last year from closing ...
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Oscar Mayer launches mobile optical service
Oscar Mayer UK has rolled out a new mobile optical service through Eyecare International, which will allow the 470 employees at its Ferndale Foods location to access free eye tests and a pair of free frames.The launch complements the existing weekly mobile services for chiropody treatments currently on offer at ...
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Arena Housing Group rolls out online health assessments
Arena Housing Group has launched an online health assessment programme for its 775 employees.The online programme, provided by FirstAssist, was launched in February 2010. Covering work life, home life, emotional and physical wellbeing, the programme complements Arena Housing’s intranet site, HR World, which was launched in October 2009. The site’s ...
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RBS backdates benefits to boost staff pay
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has given thousands of its middle-ranking management bonuses equivalent to 5% of their salary, backdating an increase in benefits to January 2009.The backdated addition, which is understood to have been included as a cash payment in this month’s salary, are typically used by staff to ...
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Serco switches employee assistance programme provider
Serco has switched employee assistance programme (EAP) providers from PPC to Unum Ceridian for its new local government and commercial division, which covers 14,000 employees.Following a recent reorganisation that brought three parts of its business into the new division, the service and outsourcing company wanted to focus in on the ...
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NAPF sets out proposals for new pension system
The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has issued a blueprint for the UK pension system that builds on the government’s 2012 pension reforms, such as mandatory employer contributions and the national employment savings trust (Nest).Its proposals include: Revitalising workplace pensions by developing new pension designs to help employers ...
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Shilling Communication employees coin in gold stars to invest in shares
Shilling Communication has launched a performance-related incentive scheme that awards staff a value to invest in shares from the company's clients.Its Investar scheme awards 'gold stars' to its 30 staff for excellent work. They can then invest the value of the stars into the shares of one or more of ...
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Research: Dental perks bring a smile to staff
Dental benefits are seen as an integral way to improve staff morale and reduce sickness absence.In Simplyhealth's Dental Survey 2010, 67% of respondents believe dental benefits improve morale, up from 51% in 2008. The figure for companies that believe dental benefits reduce absence has also increased, from 30% in 2008 ...
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Shire Pharmaceuticals offers helpline as bonus sacrifice scheme take-up falls
Shire Pharmaceuticals has seen a drop in take-up of its bonus sacrifice scheme from 17% to 11% year on year.To help its 315 eligible staff make a decision around the scheme, which enables them to sacrifice their bonus into the pension plan and save tax and national insurance, the Basingstoke-based ...
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Mayer Brown switches voluntary benefits provider
Law firm Mayer Brown International has switched providers for its online voluntary benefits plan and concierge service. It has moved its plan, available to 600 staff at its central London offices, from Xexec to Asperity Employee Benefits.The plan, called 'Mayer Brown advantage', offers discounts at more than 1,500 retailers using ...
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Asperity offers fast track to deliver reward
Asperity Employee Benefits has launched a reward and recognition module that can be added to its Reward Gateway product.The RealTimeReward programme enables employees to be nominated for a recognition reward, for this to be approved, and for the reward to be given in less than an hour via an electronic ...
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News analysis: Tax ruling is spoke in the wheels for cycle-to-work schemes
Clarification of the tax rules on cycle-to-work schemes is causing many employers to rethink their arrangements, says Jennifer PatersonAn increasing number of employers are having to review their cycle-to-work schemes after the Department for Transport (DfT) clarified the implementation guidance for these schemes last October, and HM Revenue and Customs ...
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Equity Insurance Group offers flexibility as share incentive plan is opened to all UK staff
Equity Insurance Group has introduced a share incentive plan (Sip), which opened to all its 1,100 UK employees on 5 March.This is the first employee share scheme launched by the company since it was bought by Insurance Australia Group in January 2007. The last time Equity Insurance Group had a ...
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Survey finds that dental benefits improve employee morale and reduce sickness absence
The percentage of companies that believe dental benefits improve employee morale has risen from 51% in 2008 to 67% in 2010, according to healthcare provider Simplyhealth’s Annual Dental Survey conducted by Opinion Matters.The survey, which polled 250 HR managers and more than 1,000 working adults in the UK, also found ...
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Budget 2010: HMRC plans to target employee benefits trusts and EFRBS
Within the 2010 Budget, Chancellor Alastair Darling has revealed plans to take action to tackle the avoidance of tax and national insurance contributions through the use of trusts and other vehicles to reward employees.HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will launch a review and consultation during 2010 on “taxation of geared ...
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Budget 2010: Changes to pension tax legislation
Changes will be made to pensions tax legislation at the beginning of the next parliament, according to Chancellor Alastair Darling’s 2010 Budget.These changes will enable the national employment savings trust (Nest) to operate as a registered pension scheme; remove tax on interest charges on late contributions made by employers to ...