The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) has endorsed calls for tax breaks or other support from government to support workplace healthcare after staff absence cost it £1.3m in 2020.
This is according to Sarita Coleman, head of reward at animal welfare charity the RSPCA, who was speaking at a roundtable event organised by Barnett Waddingham.
Industry calls for tax breaks for companies offering private medical insurance ultimately fell on deaf ears in this Spring’s Budget.
When asked by Health & Protection whether the RSPCA would welcome such tax breaks, Coleman said it cost a lot of organisations a “lot of money” to provide company benefits and premiums were “going up”.
“Because we are a welfare organisation looking after animals, we ought to look after our people,” Coleman said.
“We invest a lot of money in that side of things. We have an employee assistance programme, we have a healthcare cash plan scheme.
“We’ve got a group income protection scheme that pays out once they’ve been on sickness for a year.
“We class anyone who has been off for longer than a month as being on long term sick. With most of those people on long term sick, it’s mental illness. It’s that mental wellbeing that people are suffering from more than anything.
“It does cost a lot of money for all of these additional benefits and we wouldn’t change it. We want to look after our staff, but government support, tax breaks, anything around that would be welcomed.”
Staff paying despite cost of living
At the event the Barnett Waddingham partner for platform and benefits Julia Turney reported 90% of respondents to its research had been affected by the cost of living crisis, with 34% affected significantly and 42% adding they did not have access to emergency funds.
Mindful of the additional pressures caused by the cost of living crisis and ever increasing NHS waiting lists, Coleman noted that upon joining the RSPCA last year she consulted staff on what they wanted from the organisation’s benefits offering.
Coleman added that while some staff working in RSPCA animal care centres tend to be low earners who find it difficult to afford enhanced levels of cover offered under the company’s healthcare cash plan, take-up of the top level of benefits had increased, with employees citing NHS waiting lists as the reason.
She highlighted that employee absence cost the organisation around £1.3m in 2020 during the first year of the pandemic, affecting the way its centres were run and putting additional pressure on staff who had to cover for those off sick.