Employers don't know if employees are carers

More than four in five employers admit they aren’t aware of which of their staff also act as carers when they’re not working. This is just one of the findings to emerge from the Jelf Employee Benefits Survey 2017 

http://www.jelfgroup.com/cms_files/documents/seminars/jeb_survey_2017_final_17005.pdf

The survey reveals that employers would like to see greater emphasis and encouragement from government towards the provision of ‘carer’ employee benefits.

‘The number of unpaid carers in the UK is estimated at 6.5 million’, says Steve Herbert, Head of Benefits Strategy at Jelf Employee Benefits. ‘Many of these carers are also struggling to maintain paid jobs in addition to their caring duties. Evidence suggests that such carers are often forced to turn down promotions, reduce their hours, or even leave the workplace altogether as a result of their caring duties. Any or all of these outcomes may be problematic and costly for their employer, damaging to the carer’s finances, and can only worsen the UK’s already poor productivity figures’.

The Jelf research also contains useful data on the provision of financial education in the workplace, childcare costs (including the preparedness of employers for the switch to Tax-Free Childcare), and the reach of flexible benefits more generally.