Housing and debt the biggest financial concern for employees – Jelf Employee Benefits

Seven in ten employers believe their staff are distracted by personal financial problems, according to research by Jelf Employee Benefits. Its survey of employers in England and Wales highlights the damage to work and productivity caused by employees’ personal financial problems.

• Employers believe that money worries may be distracting more than 70% of employees.
• 43% of organisations believe that staff had been absent from work to deal with financial problems in the last 12 months alone.
• Employers believe that cost of housing (20%) and house purchase (21%) are the chief financial concerns facing employees in 2017.
• The cost of debt is close behind (18%).
• Other major challenges include uncontrolled spending, food and utility prices, childcare and care costs.

The study also sought employer views on how many in their workforce were struggling to balance income and expenditure. The findings in this respect were ‘very alarming’ – 27% of respondents believe that over half of their workers were just about managing financially.

Steve Herbert of Jelf Employee Benefits said:

‘We would strongly encourage employers to better promote the features of their employee benefits offering, and in particular introduce or promote the usage of employee assistance plans and financial education tools. This will help empower workers to achieve sensible and informed financial decisions.’

The research, undertaken in the first half of 2017, surveyed more than 300 employers in private, public and third sector organisations.

Jelf is an ‘award-winning consultancy that supports businesses and individuals with expert advice on matters relating to insurance, employee benefits and risk management’. For more information about Jelf, please visit www.jelfgroup.com