Cash plans enjoyed the strongest growth in 2024 across all protection and healthcare product lines according to Corporate Adviser Insight’s latest sector report.
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Corporate Adviser’s Workplace Protection and Wellbeing report showed that the number of employees covered by cash plans rose 9 per cent in 2024.
All other products lines showed positive growth over the past 12 months, albeit at a slower rate than has been seen in recent years. This slowdown in the market comes against a more challenging economic background for employers and some premium increases.
There was also significant growth in the group income protection market, with the number of employees covered up by 4.82 per cent.
Group PMI saw the slowest growth in employee numbers — up just 0.3 per cent; however this sector has seen the strongest growth over a five year period, with employees covered on these plans increasing by 26 per cent.
Looking across the individual product lines, group life continues to be the most widely-used product, covering more than 11m employees in the UK.
The report gives a cross industry view on the number of employees and employers covered by different providers in each of these products lines. It also provides a detailed overview on the propositions and added-value services offered by each for consultants working in this area.
The data provided shows that Aviva is now the biggest group risk provider, following its acquisition of AIG Life last year. This has seen it overtake Canada Life as the biggest provider of group life (in terms of employees and employers covered). It also remains the biggest provider in the GIP market, in terms of employees covered.
In contrast Canada Life has seen a decline in both the number of employers and employees it covers in the group life market, and a decline in the number of employees covered under GIP policies. It has seen growth in the GCI market, and remains the largest provider in this sector.
The Workplace Protection and Wellbeing report also showed a change in how employee benefits consultants and advisers perceive the relative value of many of these benefits. Around a quarter of advisers now see group PMI as delivering the best option, despite the higher upfront costs – the largest number in this survey.
This was followed by corporate cash plans and then group life policies. The ongoing problems people have accessing primary care services perhaps reflect the perceived value of both PMI and cash plans relative to insurance-based protection products.
This is a marked difference on similar surveys conducted over the last few years, when almost a third of advisers cited wellbeing services as delivering the highest return on investment for employers, the most popular answer given. This year they were rated fourth, ahead of only group income protection. This may reflect the proliferation and ubiquity of these services, which are now embedded at not additional cost within many protection and healthcare products.
