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30 Jul 2015
by Debi O'Donovan

At a glance: reward and benefits headlines this week

Your quick-read round up of the reward and benefits stories appearing in the press in the past seven days.The headlines you might have missed between 24-30 July 2015.

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Tax and National Insurance alignment on the agenda again
CIPP: The Office for Tax Simplification (OTS) has agreed with the government to undertake a further review into the closer alignment of income tax and national insurance contributions. Read story

TPR fines more than 400 employers over auto-enrolment failures
WSB: The Pensions Regulator (TPR) issued 424 fixed penalty notices and five escalating fines against employers for auto-enrolment failures in the year to March. Read story

Workplace stress and exhaustion damaging staff loyalty
WSB: The Britain at Work Study by Lansons and Opinium Research found evidence of staff under pressure and overworked with a third (30%) of the 2,000 respondents feeling they did not have enough time to do their job effectively. Read story

TPR underestimates number of small firms to auto-enrol by half a million
WSB: The watchdog's third annual AE commentary and analysis reveals that its previous estimate of 1.3 million employers was incorrect and that the total figure will be closer to 1.8 million. Read story

Fit for Work service completes national rollout
WSB: The Fit for Work (FfW) service, which aims to reduce the impact of long-term sickness absence, has completed its nationwide rollout after going live across all of England. Read story

21% provide a car cash allowance
Employee Benefits: Half of respondents (54%) to the Employee Benefits/Alphabet Fleet research 2015 choose to source their company cars through a contract hire arrangement, while 22% use finance leasing and 21% provide a cash allowance for employees to buy their cars independently. Read story

Pearson makes £90m pension pledge
Employee Benefits: Pearson will make a £90 million contribution to its group pension plan following the sale of the Financial Times Group to Asian media organisation Nikkei Inc. Read story

Alere refreshes benefits for multi-generational workforce
Employee Benefits: Alere is refreshing its employee benefits programme in the UK in order to increase engagement and provide more choice for the different generations within its workforce. Read story

Almost half of employees put job before health, finds survey
People Management: The survey from One4all Rewards found that almost half (48 per cent) of UK employees have gone into work when ill in the last year. Read story

Glassdoor unveils its top 20 employers for work/life balance
People Management: Job search and employer reviews website Glassdoor has unveiled its top 20 employers for work/life balance after analysing data from employee ratings on the site. Read story

CMA approves Simplyhealth-AXA PPP PMI deal
Cover: The acquisition is expected to be completed by 1st August 2015. Simplyhealth House in Bristol will be sold to AXA PPP and all Simplyhealth's PMI employees will join AXA PPP. Read story

Steve Webb set to join Royal London
Money Marketing: Webb, who lost his seat in the rout of Liberal Democrat MPs in the general election, has held meetings with providers since May. Read story

Hargreaves Lansdown suspends pension transfer advice
Money Marketing: Hargreaves Lansdown has had to stop taking on defined benefit transfers after hitting capacity following the introduction of pension freedoms. Read story

Pension scam losses treble month after freedoms
Money Marketing: National data collected by City of London police show reported losses shot up 235 per cent in May to £4.7m from £1.4m in April. Read story

Clothes2Order introduces emergency loans for staff
Employee Benefits: Cash advances of up to a month’s wages are being offered, and repayments will be made from employees’ salaries over a six-month period. Read story

FTSE 100 targeted for boardroom pay transparency
WSB: Company shareholders have voiced their concerns about failing to link pay with performance and exercising pay policy discretions. Read story

Maternity discrimination forcing mothers out of work
Reward Guide: Over one in ten (11%) of Britain’s new mothers have reported that they have been dismissed, made compulsorily redundant where others in their workplace were not, or treated so poorly they felt they had to leave their jobs. Read story

Pay for majority of workers ‘is not fair’, staff tell researchers
People Management: The research, detailed in the report ‘Britain at Work’ conducted on behalf of business consultancy firm Lansons, also revealed that 28 per cent of employees felt their senior leaders were overcompensated for their work. Read story

Arup employees engage with group risk benefits
Employee Benefits: Professional services firm Arup provides a minimum level of cover of group risk benefits for its younger employees to help protect dependants or family members if the worse should happen. Read story

Advertised salaries at 11-month low
HR magazine: The study, UK Job Market Report, by Adzuna found that the average advertised UK salary was £33,696 in June, down 0.9% from £34,002 in May. This marks the fourth consecutive month of month-on-month falls. Read story

Jury service leaves many workers out of pocket
Pay & Benefits: The survey of 200 HR directors, undertaken for Churchill Home Insurance, also revealed that just 12 per cent of businesses would continue paying a full salary for the duration of a worker’s jury service. Read story

EAT rules on pensions disability discrimination case
Employee Benefits: An appeal has been allowed against a ruling that found a former technician had been discriminated against by receiving half of the pension he would have been entitled to had he been working full-time at the time of his ill-health retirement. Read story

21% gender pay gap for general marketeers
Employee Benefits: Male general marketeers earn 21% more than their female counterparts, according to research from Employee Benefits’ sister brand Econsultancy, with collaborations from Design Week, Creative Review and Marketing Week. Read story

Agilisys launches employee ownership trust
Employee Benefits: Through the trust, Agilisys’ 1,800 staff now own a majority shareholding (50%) in the firm. The move forms part of Agilisys’ plans to evolve the business. Read story

New CEO for Allianz Worldwide Care
Corporate Adviser: Allianz Worldwide Care is appointing Ida Luka-Lognoné as chief executive officer, taking over the role vacated by Ron Buchan who has retired. Read story

20% would save more than auto-enrolment default
Employee Benefits: One-fifth (20%) of respondents would increase the amount they contribute to their pensions beyond the minimum auto-enrolment contribution rate, according to research by Aegon. Read story

Two-thirds of employers are making changes to annual performance reviews
Employee Benefits: PWC’s 2015 Performance management research, which surveyed 97 large organisations and 1,038 employees, found that 5% of respondent organisations are considering bringing an end to performance ratings completely. Read story

Gender pay reporting for large employers expected in 2016
Personnel Today: The Government has published a preliminary consultation on its proposals for mandatory gender pay reporting for employers with 250 or more employees, with a view to finalising the legislation in 2016. Read story

Employers out of touch with employee perception of benefits
Employee Benefits Adviser: The Guardian Workplace Benefits Study measured how Americans perceive and value their employee benefits. What it found is that employers are out of touch with how their employees value their workplace benefits, such as insurance, retirement and health. Read story

Govt to review pension freedoms advice impact
Money Marketing: The Government plans to review the advice requirements surrounding pension freedoms amid concerns over the way providers are applying the rules and insistent clients. Read story

Hertfordshire County Council introduces health screening
Employee Benefits: The scheme was launched in June 2015 and is available through the council’s current reward package, Herts Rewards. Read story

Baker 'unfairly dismissed' after showing colleague payslip
HR Grapevine: Bakers Harvest, a New Zealand (NZ) bakery, said employee Keith Kar created problems for the business by showing his payslip to an employee. Read story

Uber facing lawsuit over drivers’ employment rights
People Management: GMB, the union for professional drivers, is challenging the firm’s claim that its drivers are partners, rather than employees, and are therefore not entitled to the rights normally afforded to workers. Read story

Higher minimum pay threshold looms for Tier 2 migrants settling in the UK
People Management: From 6 April 2016, those migrant workers applying for ‘indefinite leave to remain’ will also need to show they are being paid a minimum gross annual salary of £35,000 a year, or the ‘appropriate rate’ for their occupation, whichever is higher. Read story

Reward Gateway staff to get windfall of up to year’s salary following sale
WSB: Currently, Reward Gateway management and employees hold 40% of the firm's equity - a shareholding that will increase to 45% following the deal. Read story

Health Shield to absorb IPT rise for corporate clients
WSB: Cash plan provider Health Shield has promised to cover the insurance premium tax (IPT) rise for its corporate cash plans until 2017. Read story

Less than a quarter of companies offer financial education
WSB: Four in ten benefits professionals (43%) viewed their personal finances as a cause of stress or distraction in the workplace says a report from Lemonade Benefits. Read story

Retirement education unpopular with many 55-65 year olds
WSB: Retirement group Partnership asked 2,000 consumers what information and education they would find most useful at retirement. Read story

Honeywell takes on £900m in DB liabilities after Elster acquisition
WSB: Honeywell International will take on the bulk of Melrose Industries’ defined benefit (DB) pension schemes with the £3.3bn acquisition of its Elster business. Read story

BIS sickness absence rises as one in four goes unidentified
WSB: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is unable to account for a quarter of its staff sickness absences. Read story

Treasury consults on charge cap for accessing pension flexibilities
Professional Pensions: The government has confirmed it will consider a charge cap for when people access their pension freedoms if it finds evidence of excessive early exit charges. Read story

Kodak ordered to compensate member over reduced annuity rate
Professional Pensions: The Pensions Ombudsman (PO) has instructed the Kodak pension scheme to make up the financial losses suffered by a member in a delayed transfer request. Read story

TPR: Auto-enrolment compliance ‘the norm’ but unpaid contributions on the rise
Professional Pensions: Most firms staging in the last three months have complied with auto-enrolment obligations, but there has been a steep rise in unpaid contribution notices issued by The Pensions Regulator (TPR), figures show. Read story

Unions urge Nestle to hold off DB closure plans until December valuation
Professional Pensions: Two trade unions have called for Nestle to put on hold plans to close its career average defined benefit (DB) scheme until its actuarial valuation in December. Read story

BT Pension Scheme extends Accenture administration contract
Professional Pensions: The £40bn, 300,000-member BT Pension Scheme has signed a third-party administration deal with Accenture – extending its relationship by eight years. Read story

Only 35% of employers subsidise staffs' home offices
Reward Guide: The research, by Regus, says the £2,000 pa calculation includes the cost to staff of keeping space set aside, having to heat it as well as providing furniture, and buying other office equipment and supplies like printers, paper and pens. Read story

Minimum wage needs to double before workers don't need state top-ups
Reward Guide: Hot on the heels of calls for employers to universally pay the Living Wage, the Resolution Foundation has calculated the minimum wage would actually have to rise by about 30% beyond the Living Wage for families to work without needing state top-ups. Read story