The benefits industry had little to cheer about from yesterday’s Budget, with the Chancellor ignoring calls to reduce the taxation of corporate healthcare and wellbeing policies.
There was no change to current arrangements for corporate healthcare, despite the the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasting rising ill-health to impact on UK productivity.
In the documents published alongside yesterday’s Budget the OBR said it expects rising health-related inactivity to continue weighing on the UK worker participation rate. It pointed out that inactivity due to long-term sickness remains historically high, at 2.8 million in the final quarter of 2023 — accounting for almost a third (30 per cent) of the inactive population.
Improving productivity to fuel growth has been cited as a key Conservative aim.
Many across the employer healthcare benefits sector have been calling for government to address this issue, by making occupational health schemes and employer-backed health benefits more cost effective via tax changes.
This could include incentives for firms that offer healthcare benefits such as PMI, or an extension to the ‘benefit in kind’ tax that employees have to pay on corporate healthcare benefits such as PMI and cash plans. Currently employees pay tax on “trivial benefits” worth more than £50 a year.
However WPA points out that the healthcare industry now offers a wider range of products below this £50 threshold – which can be used by employers to improve the health and productivity of their workforce.
It points out its recently launched Digital Health product — priced below this £50 threshold — offers diagnosis, primary care and treatment options to all employees.
WPA corporate communications director Charlie MacEwan says: “While the health of the UK employees was not mentioned in the budget, the discussion around corporate healthcare continues. It is great news that Dame Carol Black has been appointed to lead the National Occupational Health Service and that minimum standards for occupational health services will be published in the summer and I look forward to the discussion and debate continuing.”
He adds: “Employee health is not just a health problem, it is an economic problem. These kind of benefits have the ability to boost productivity as well as the economy at little cost to employers and employees.”
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