Providers of employee assistance programmes (EAPs) have been urged to work together and share client information in a bid to help save the benefit's tax-free status.
The government has proposed to introduce a tax on EAPs, and has given the Employee Assistance Programme Association (EAPA) until the end of August to present an argument as to why this should not go ahead.
At a meeting of its members, held last month, the EAPA asked providers to share information such as the number of clients that are provided with EAPs, and the number of employees that use these products.
It has set a deadline of the end of this month for the information to be made available so that it has time to put its case together.
Eric Marshall, chairman of the EAPA, explained: "We need to buck the trend here. Providers must get used to sharing information with each other. We have to work together as an industry to stop this."
Providers also plan to rally their clients in order to gain further support for keeping EAPs tax free.