All articles by Robert Crawford – Page 47
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Article
Fuel duty increase cancelled
Autumn Statement 2013: The government is to cancel the fuel duty increase which was planned for 1 September 2014.The rise was expected to be 1.61 pence per litre but the cancellation means the price of fuel will be frozen until 2015.It is the second time the government has scrapped a ...
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Article
Axa PPP to launch musculoskeletal health pathway
Axa PPP Healthcare is to launch a new referral approach for employees with musculoskeletal conditions.Its Musculoskeletal Health Pathway, which will be available from 1 January 2014, aims to cut the claims’ costs of private medical insurance by ensuring employees are referred quickly to suitable providers for evidence-based care.The referral approach ...
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Article
Aviva makes changes to international PMI
Aviva has made changes to its international private medical insurance, which will come into force from 1 February 2014.The changes, which aim to provide new and existing members with clearer benefit terms, include an increase in core benefits to an annual limit of £5 million.The policy has been divided into ...
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Article
Broadstone partners Standard Life for auto-enrolment product
Broadstone Corporate Benefits has partnered Standard Life to launch an auto-enrolment product for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that stage from January 2014.Employers will have access to the auto-enrolment product via Standard Life’s group flexible retirement plan.It includes:Online functionality for employers and employees.Unlimited switching for member’s investment funds.An actively-managed default ...
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Article
Micros Systems to streamline pensions for auto-enrolment
Micros Systems is to streamline its six existing defined contribution (DC) pension schemes into a new group personal pension (GPP) plan to comply with its auto-enrolment duties.The service provider for the hospitality and retail industries will auto-enrol around 1,000 employees on its staging date of 1 April 2014.It has appointed ...
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Article
Aspire to Retire launches pre-retirement portal
Aspire to Retire has launched an online retirement portal, iAspire, to provide information and tools for pension scheme members.The portal is designed for employees to begin planning for retirement up to five years before their intended retirement date.It aims to educate pension scheme members and engage employees earlier to help ...
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Article
HMRC changes company car advisory fuel rates
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has announced a change to its company car advisory fuel rates.The changes, which relates to some petroleum, diesel and low petroleum gas (LPG) cars, include reductions of 1p per mile in the rate paid to drivers using diesel, and 2p per per mile for employees ...
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Article
B&Q staff to share £15m share plan payout
More than 14,000 B&Q and Screwfix employees are to share a £15 million payout following the maturity of parent company Kingfisher Group’s three-year and five-year sharesave schemes.Based on the closing share price of 375.9p on 29 November 2013, this equates to an average gain of £6,867 per person.The majority of ...
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Article
A wigged out healthcare benefit
Something for the weekend…Could this be the next healthcare benefit to hit the market?Technology giant, Sony, has filed a patent for a so-called SmartWig, which would include ultrasound sensors, a camera and a laser pointer.It would not necessarily be worn to replace hair, but as a sort of mobile computer ...
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Article
Top 10 most read stories this week
The top 10 most read articles on employeebenefits.co.uk from 21-28 November:1. Abercrombie staff entitled to guarantee payments2. Review of the 2013 benefits landscape3. London Luton Airport halves healthcare costs4. H&M pledges to pay factory workers a living wage 5. Helena Davies: Employer duties surrounding disability and sickness absence 6. How ...
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Article
UK staff and managers have happiest relationship in Europe
Three-quarters (75%) of UK respondents are happy with the relationship they have with their managers, according to research by Edenred.Its annual Edenred-Ipsos barometer survey, which questioned 7,200 European employees including 800 UK workers, found that the UK had the highest level of satisfaction across all respondents. However, the UK has ...
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Article
Midcounties Co-operative staff share £1.5m
The Midcounties Co-operative has paid out £1.5 million to its employees and member following a surge in trading. The profit share, which is for transactions made between 27 January and 26 July 2013, comes after the retail organisation announced that trading was up by £1.6 million to £11.8 million for ...
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Article
Ensign launches pensions communications product
Ensign Pensions Administration has launched a product to help pension scheme members communicate with their scheme administrators. The product, Intouch, provides video communications services, which enable employees to receive live face-to-face support from the administration team that looks after their pension.The calls are designed to help employees share and review ...
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Article
H&M pledges to pay factory workers a living wage
Fashion retailer H&M has pledged to pay a living wage to its 850,000 textile employees by 2018.The Swedish organisation, which has more than 200 UK stores, said it would support two of its factories in Bangladesh and one in Cambodia in 2014 to adopt a fair living wage.H&M intends to ...
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Article
Christmas bonuses not popular
The supermarket chain’s 180,000 staff shared a £17 million festive bonus, which included a £20 Asda gift card, £5 each towards a Christmas party, and a free meal.But according to Edenred’s Saying thank you at Christmas 2013 survey, two-thirds (65%) of employee respondents do not expect to receive a Christmas ...
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Article
Abercrombie staff entitled to guaranteed payments
The Court of Appeal has found in favour of hourly-paid employees at US clothing retailer Abercrombie to claim guarantee payments for workless days.In the case, Abercrombie and Ors v AGA Rangemaster Ltd, staff agreed to work a four-day week under a temporary agreement that had been made through their trade ...
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Article
Care workers paid below minimum wage
More than 2,400 employees in the care sector have been paid below the national minimum wage over the past two years, according to an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).HMRC looked at jobs across the sector and investigated 224 employers, with some investigations still ongoing.Eighty-eight cases have been found ...
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Analysis
Contract-based pension scheme comparison table
The plans, set up by employers, include group personal pensions (GPPs), stakeholder schemes and self-invested personal pensions (Sipps), and vary in terms of, for example, contribution levels and investment limits.Read on to find out how each scheme rates. Group personal pension (GPP)StakeholderSelf-invested personal pension (Sipp)Definition:This is an arrangement made ...
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AnalysisTop five long-service awards for employees
The days of carriage clocks and gold watches as long-service awards are fast disappearing, replaced by gift vouchers and electrical goods as the top gift choices for loyal employees. If you read nothing else, read this… Long-service awards vary across different organisations. The most common long-service awards tend to be ...
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Article
Three pensions consultations announced in November
Consultation on defined ambition pensionsThe Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) proposal to introduce a defined ambition pension was first mooted in November 2012.The consultation, which will close on 19 December, proposes a defined ambition pension to create more certainty for employees, share investment risks more equally and help employers ...