There has been a 50 per cent increase in the number of employees covered by corporate cash plans, according to a landmark new report published by Corporate Adviser Intelligence.
The Workplace Protection & Wellbeing Report for the first time shows the market share by lives covered and employers across the group risk, corporate healthcare, corporate cash plan and wellbeing markets.
This report makes clear that the coverage of of corporate cash plans has soared over the last two years, from industry estimates of just over 1m employees covered in 2016 to almost 1.5m today.
Health Shield has the biggest corporate cash plan book of business, covering over 332,000 employees. This is followed by Westfield Health (293,000 employees covered), BHSF (275,000 covered) and Simplyhealth (over 240,000 employees covered).
In contrast Westfield Health covers the largest number of employers — with over 8,000 businesses offering its cash plan product. This is almost twice that of its nearest rival — Health Shield, which covers just over 4,000 employers.
This report pools together data from all the major providers in the cash plan sector. Only one provider HSF declined to submit data to the report.
Increased interest in corporate cash plans from the intermediary market has helped drive growth in this market, with perceptions of the sector amongst corporate advisers changing significantly in recent years.
Advisers surveyed ranked cash plans third amongst protection and wellbeing benefits in terms of the extent to which they were valued by employees, ahead of group income protection, wellbeing services and group critical illness cover.
The ability to offset the excess on a PMI plans helped capture the attention of employees benefits consultants and IFAs. But increasingly these plans are being seen as useful employee benefits in their own right, with many offering a range of wellbeing benefits in a simple and low cost product.
The report also showed that the dental, optical and complementary therapies were amongst the most used benefits.
To request a free copy of the Workplace Protection & Wellbeing report – click here.
