Paycare Protect
Paycare Protect is the Wolverhampton based health cash plan provider’s new entry-level plan. It aims to help businesses support employees’ mental, physical and financial wellbeing.
Available to businesses employing over 20 employees, the plan costs around £1 a week (£4.18 a month) for each employee.
Benefits include 100% cashback on dental (max £50pa), optical (£50), chiropody and professional therapy bills, including physiotherapy, hypnotherapy and chiropractic (max £125pa). Protect also pays up to £150 for specialist consultations and tests, £55 for a health screen and includes an online Lifestyle Assessment.
Redundancy Premium Protection for six months is included, as is free cover for children under 18. Paycare Perks is an online platform enabling members to access discounts, vouchers and rewards on everyday purchases such as insurance, travel and entertainment.
Optionally, employers can add an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for 40p per employee each month (about 2p per working day). This provides a confidential support service for any employees with mental, physical or financial worries.
Comment: The £1 a week HCP market runs the risk to providers that they make no money out of such business. However, having a minimum scheme size of 20 members helps avoid some of that and the challenge is then to get employers or employees to choose to pay for more cover.
For employers, the plan covers many of their duty of care needs and all for around £50 a year per employee. Add in the nicely named Paycare Perks, and it adds up to an attractive package.
Plus points: Good HCP benefits for the equivalent of £1 week per employee; Simple to understand, set up and administer; Paycare Perks is an easy to remember package of discounts that can be further built on in future; Covers some duty of care needs too .
Not so plus points: An extra costs for employees; Does not cover very small firms (which make up the vast majority of SMEs); Benefits are relatively low; Just one cover level.
Website: http://www.paycare.org.
Rating (max 10): Overall: 8. Gold
Tags: HCP; Paycare