This was discussed yesterday as one of our funders have asked if they can help both our beneficiaries and our staff. This will mean we can provide more subsidised places for our beneficiaries and 2 payments to our staff - one in October, one in December; potentially £500 in total (obviously subject to tax/NI). In April we gave a 4% pay rise to all our staff so hopefully if approved this will be a welcome "bonus".

In reply to Louise Andrews:

The CIPD’s summer 2022 Labour Market Outlook finds that 15% of organisations have paid, or plan to pay, such a payment to some or all their workers, while a further 15% are actively considering it. Private sector firms are most likely to have paid this bonus (18%) - especially those in the primary and utilities (30%), financial service (26%), and construction (25%) sectors. In the voluntary sector, 11% of charities have paid, or plan to pay, this to some or all their workers, while a further 19% are actively considering it.

In reply to Charles:

We are looking at longer term measures for our staff to help them with household bills and I would love to see these as a salary sacrifice (similar to the 'home technology' schemes years ago), so helping people update their homes with things like solar panels which will help them with household bills long into the future.

In reply to Liane:

Similarly to help people with travel costs we wanted people to move towards electric cars, one of the obstacles we needed to overcome was the cost of installing car charging points at their home, we implemented a scheme to give them £500 towards it and the ability to split the rest of the cost over a number of months to help finance it.

In reply to Liane:

Yes, Liane. Anything that helps staff to insulate their homes would be a great employee benefit. Perhaps, the government will discover the advantages of allowing salary sacrifice on energy efficient products.

In reply to Charles:

I think it would be really successful if it worked like the home technology or bike to work scheme.

As a relatively small business we have very strong communication lines with all employees, and currently we are getting a sense that many colleagues are feeling anxious about the winter ahead and potential financial difficulties, especially with the new way of working, meaning many people are largely at home for the majority of the week. We have (very briefly) discussed the potential of setting up a hardship fund, which could be accessible for those employees that are struggling, however, I just wondered if anyone else had done this before or are also considering this, and how this would potentially work? I realise there is probably some tax rules etc. but I'm particularly interested in how we'd qualify who could access the fund, how we make employees aware of it, and above all that its fair and equitable throughout the business. Any advice much appreciated. 

In reply to Emma:

Hi Emma - I hope you don't mind but I've moved your 'hardship fund' post to this exisiting .cost of living' thread.

surely we should be putting pressure in the government to take off VAT from Electric Gas and Oil for Heating taking VAT and Fuel Duty off Petrol and diesel and this would reduce fuel to £1 a litre and take £800 off the average heating bills and this is way better than any one off payment and the fuel would reverse inflation everywhere as it affects everything we buy and do !?

In reply to Stephen Jarrett:

Ah well... now we're getting into the realm of politics, which is all about choices about who bears the pain.

I'd personally prefer a windfall tax on the suppliers vs a VAT cut, which will only cut the amount of money in the public purse.

In reply to Emma:

Yes, Emma there are HMRC issues to consider. 

This employer includes hardship loans in its approach to employee financial wellbeing and this from a recent LWF event might also be useful.

The CIPD reward management survey finds that 20% of employers surveyed offer hardship loans to some or all staff, 16% offer earned pay access (employees can access their earned wage before their regular pay day), and 5% allow staff to set their own pay date (staff can choose how often they are paid, for instance weekly rather than monthly). 

There are a number of large employers offering employees a one off amount to support with the cost of living crisis.  I was wondering what smaller employers or charities were thinking about this, and whether they had any plans to offer such a payment or what other support was being put in place.

In reply to Rachel:

Hi Rachel - you started a new thread but I've moved you rpost into the pre-exisiting (and busy) discussion. Hope you don't mind.

With another hat on I had a call today with the Chief Officer of our area Citizens Advice team. Grim. I think employers need to be preparing for increasing stress on their employees in the autumn.

This is a great post and we are also thinking one off payment plus 1 or 2% (we gave 2.8% and more in April's merit increase) and then a further merit increase again in April 23. I am finding a lot of conflicting information for example some fellow colleagues giving on or around CPI, yet median anticipated pay increases in the private sector are around 4% (CIPD and Chemical Industry benchmark).

In reply to Rachel:

The CIPD’s Summer 2022 Labour Market Outlook found a difference by employer size and sector in terms of cost-of-living payments.

Overall, in response to the jump in the cost-of-living, 15% of employer have awarded, or plan to award, a cash lump sum (such as a bonus, stipend, allowance, etc) to some or all their workers to help offset price rises. This is in addition to any salary increases given or planned this year.

By sector, 18% of companies in the private sector have done this or are planning to do this compared with 8% of employers in the public sector and 11% of charities in the voluntary sector.

Large employers (17%) are more likely to have done this (or have plans to do this) then small- and medium-sized employers (13%). Similarly, large firms (21%) in the private sector are more likely to do this than small- and medium-sized businesses (14%).

For more information overall, see this CIPD blog