How to align health benefits with the realities of lower-earners

Employers are investing heavily in workplace health, but standard delivery models can fail frontline staff. REBA’s content writer Sarah Haselwood explores why, without addressing barriers, expanding benefit offerings will not translate into frontline usage.

The UK health-cover market reached a record £8.64bn in early 2025, driven by surging employer investment, according to market data provider LaingBuisson. Yet beyond corporate headquarters, on factory floors, logistics hubs, and retail counters, that investment stalls.

Barriers to benefits

From inflexible shift patterns and the absence of digital channels to cash-flow fears and product mismatches, standard corporate packages too often create accidental barriers to entry.

REBA’s latest report, produced in partnership with Personal Group, Removing barriers to access: Making benefits work for the lower-paid workforce, details the practical barriers lower-paid and frontline staff face in accessing and taking up benefits.

According to the government’s Keep Britain Working (2025) report, this lack of take-up costs businesses an average of £120 per worker per day in lost profit from ill-health.

What can employers do to encourage benefit take up?

Bridging this divide does not require an overhaul of your benefits budget, but it does demand a rethinking of how care is communicated and delivered.

As detailed in the report, driving frontline take-up hinges on moving away from passive intranet announcements and shifting toward human-led, low-cost operational solutions that fit seamlessly around shift work.

These solutions can be paired with accessible options to help employers deliver day-to-day improvements, from developing more holistic wellbeing strategies and equipping line managers to offering payroll deductions to provide low-barrier cash plans deducted at source.

The report, the second in a trilogy on protecting frontline workers, gives reward leaders a practical, structured framework to maintain and improve whole of workforce health.

Reward and benefits professionals will also discover how to shift from passive packages to human-led, everyday communication and understand indicators of low health benefit engagement. 

The Keep Britain Working review outlines evolving expectations for workforce health over the next few years, and REBA’s report provides a roadmap to help organisations stay ahead of changing employer responsibilities. 