Employers must help staff with finances
November 13, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
Employers should play a bigger part in helping their workers deal with debt, a panel of experts has claimed. 
Businesses should provide their staff with clear, impartial financial advice and help them to get into the habit of planning their finances, it was argued.
Stress caused by financial worries costs British businesses £9.6 billion a year in absenteeism, delegates at a roundtable discussion hosted by insurance giant AXA.
The event was in aid of My Budget Day, an AXA-sponsored event aimed at encouraging businesses to help their employees keep control of their money.
Richard Lambert, director general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), told the meeting: “It’s clear that industry needs to take responsibility for the wellbeing of their employees. There are a lot of companies out there that are considering how they might offer generic financial advice to their employees, and there are parallels with what companies are doing to raise general education levels as well as the fitness of their employees. It all improves morale.”
Another delegate, acting Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable warned that any advice provided must be impartial.
“We also need to ensure that there are safeguards in place to prevent financial services companies from selling their own products to their employees,” he stressed.
An experiment AXA ran last year found that households given access to independent financial advice, on the whole, ended the year better off than those left to their own devices.
