Employee Benefits poll: Almost a third (32.2%) of employers said they offer their staff a pensions salary sacrifice scheme, according to a survey of Employee Benefits readers.
Three in 10 (30.4%) of respondents said they offer a bikes-for-work scheme, 17.1% offer an electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme, and 8.2% offer a nursery salary sacrifice scheme.
Meanwhile, 6.3% offer a tech salary sacrifice scheme, 0.6% offer a grocery saving salary sacrifice scheme, and 5.1% do not offer any type of salary sacrifice scheme.
Back in May, Employee Benefits reported that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) published research into employers’ attitudes to removing tax exemptions for workplace pension schemes administered through salary sacrifice.
The research paper, Understanding the attitudes and behaviours of employers towards salary sacrifice for pensions, was completed by IFF Research.
Employers that offered salary sacrifice were positive about it, saying they thought it helped to retain employees. Some said they passed on the employer’s national insurance savings to their employees, but others said it was simply absorbed by the firm as a reduced employment cost.
Steve Webb, a partner at consultancy LCP and a former pensions minister and Liberal Democrat MP, said: “It is very revealing that HMRC has paid for research into the likely response from employers if salary sacrifice for pensions were to be scaled back. Although the research was commissioned under the previous government, the desire to raise additional revenue is, if anything, even more acute today.
“With a Chancellor reportedly looking to make up a multi-billion pound hole in the public finances in her Autumn Budget, this research suggests that changes to salary sacrifice are firmly on the agenda, and likely to be considered as a potential revenue-raising measure.”
