Salary Finance

Earlier this week, our Head of Financial Education, Jason Butler, and one of our Financial Wellbeing consultants, Kate Ithell, hosted a Livestream about free money! 💷 And by free money, we mean state benefits. The amount of money sitting unclaimed is massive (£23 billion!), and a lot of people are struggling unnecessarily simply because they don't know they can claim or how to go about it. The insights we gathered made it clear: there's still a lot that can be done here, people need concrete support to help them overcome the main three barriers to claiming benefits - awareness, complexity and stigma: 👀 Awareness is low - people don’t know about the support available to them and nearly two third of poll participants told us they weren’t aware of the financial help their local councils can provide. 😵 There’s unsurprisingly a lot of confusion when it comes to benefits, people are not sure when and how they could be eligible. Attendees asked about how to get financial support during sickness, when facing a relationship breakdown, or when dealing with rising mortgage and rent costs. 🔎 People have a lot of questions about benefits and there’s still a lot of stigma - Kate and Jason received over 40 live questions and all of them were submitted anonymously. Do you want to find out more and ensure your people are not letting free money slip through their fingers? Catch up here: https://lnkd.in/eh9nxs8X

We are proud and excited to announce that we’ve passed the first audit mandated by the Earned Wage Access (EWA) Code of Practice, turning our intentions into tangible actions. 🎉 The Code, which first launched in September 2023, sets best practice across the sector. It consists of common standards we developed alongside six other Earned Wage Access providers, with insights and guidance from EY, Money and Pensions Service and The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP). Since launching our Advance product back in 2018, creating real and meaningful impact for our customers by giving them access to their earned pay when they needed it most was always the priority. Passing this first audit reinforces our commitment to deliver and evidence the positive outcomes our solutions create for our customers. If you’re interested in finding out more about Advance and how it can support and empower your people, get in touch at getintouch@salaryfinance.com You can read about the Code of Practice here: https://lnkd.in/eQkX5rME

Did you know that every year £23 billion in benefits go unclaimed? That's over 8 million people missing out on £2,700 on average every year. 🚀 To help make sure our customers don't miss out on money that could make a world of difference, we're excited to announce we're now partnering with Policy in Practice, the experts and creators of the Better Off Calculator. 🎯 Starting this July, our customers will have exclusive access to the Better Off Calculator - a fast, simple and effective tool to easily identify in minutes all of the benefits and other types of support they could be entitled to. 💪 We all know there's a lot of stigma around money and mental health, but there's a ton of stigma around benefits. To set the record straight and help people understand what they should be claiming (and why!), our Head of Financial Education Jason Butler is hosting an interactive livestream on the 17th July. 💡 Don't think this is relevant to you or your people? According to Policy in Practice's latest report, it’s estimated that 25% of the workforce are eligible for benefits. ⏰ Don't miss out and register for your preferred 45-min time slot, 10am or 3:30pm, by clicking on the links below: https://lnkd.in/eMVP4_9b https://lnkd.in/eqZdWA_V

This week, Salary Finance turns 9! 9 years on and our social mission of supporting people's financial wellbeing and being there for them in their times of need keeps driving us forward everyday. Building a purpose-led business that has a real and positive impact on people's lives is no small feat, but the journey has been incredibly rewarding. We're proud of everything we've achieved for our clients and their employees, and all the lessons we've learnt along the way. To mark this milestone moment, our CEO Asesh Sarkar has reflected on what has contributed to our success over the last 9 years, and why we're excited about what's to come: https://lnkd.in/e-AzRVVK And for now, onwards and upwards!

For most of us having debt, or the ability to borrow money is a fact of life, and possibly something we take for granted. But what would happen if you could no longer borrow the money you needed? Fair4All Finance's latest survey shows that people on low incomes or with poor credit scores are increasingly unable to meet traditional lenders’ tougher affordability assessments. That means more and more people are unable to access the money they need. Over the last 9 years supporting people’s financial wellbeing, we’ve learnt first-hand how important it is for people to have access to inclusive and practical money solutions. When people can’t access the support they need, the impact is real and long-term - financial stress increases (at home and at work), leaving people feeling hopeless and sometimes forcing them to turn to non regulated options. The Fair4All research estimates that 3.3 million British adults have used an illegal money lender over the past 3 years. In the 9 years since we started Salary Finance, accessibility has always been one of our guiding principles (if not obsessions). By taking repayments straight from employees’ pay, we’re able to provide hard working people with affordable credit, when they need it most. And getting feedback from our customers like the one below and understanding the positive impact this can have on their lives makes it all the more rewarding and meaningful. You can read the full Fair4All report here: https://lnkd.in/er6aNycw

A month ago, 35% of you selected ‘C-suite buy-in’ as the biggest hurdle to making an impact within your organisation. Driving change internally is never easy, and it's particularly true when trying to introduce a new concept like financial wellbeing. To support our HR community, we’ve gathered our top 3 tips based on our many years helping our partners implement financial wellbeing strategies. 🎯 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 When you’re introducing financial wellbeing benefits, you're making a tangible impact on your people’s lives in and outside of work. To make it clear that this is something your employees need and have asked for, gather information from them directly via employee surveys, feedback and testimonials. And if your pension scheme opt-out rate is higher than 5%, that’s a strong indicator that your workforce is experiencing financial stress. 📊 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 When discussing anything that requires time, resources and money, C-suite will want to know the hard cold facts. Quantify the impact these new benefits will have in numbers and demonstrate how it aligns with business goals. The more quantifiable the impact is, the less room there is to push back. Helping your C-suite understand what the competition is doing in the financial wellbeing realm is also a smart move! 🚀 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 Consider the full life cycle of the new benefits and try to show the positive impact they will have long term. Run your C-suite team through all stages (pre-launch, launch and post launch), and have a plan for how you will measure the success of the benefits day-to-day. Likely you've already tried and tested some of these tips but we hope they make a small difference next time you face a blocker to change internally. Sometimes it simply comes down to whether a business is ready to embrace something new and all the stars need to align to make it happen. All we ask is that you don't lose hope and persevere - after all, you're the experts and know best what your people need the most. If you want to pick our brains and find out what we’ve found works, get in touch at getintouch@salaryfinance.com

Today's the day! If you're attending REBA Wellbeing Congress, don't forget to come by stand 78 to chat with Kate Ithell and Jack Gardiner about how we can support your people's ongoing financial wellbeing. #REBAWellbeing

A couple of months ago, we launched a poll about young people and money and 76% of you voted that children didn't have enough access to financial education and thought it should be taught at school. Talking about money with anyone can be intimidating, and bringing it up with children can be even trickier. Our beliefs and behaviours around money are often linked to what we learnt about it in our younger years. This means that for some of us, it can be an emotional topic, especially when we weren’t always given all the tools and resources growing up. So how do we move past the initial nervousness, put a positive spin on it, and get the conversation going? To keep it simple and help you get started, we've broken it down into 5 actionable tips: https://lnkd.in/euDJy3rj What has been most helpful for you when teaching your kids about money and trying to set them up for success? Let us know in the comment section below.

Will we see you at REBA Wellbeing Congress next week? Swing by booth 78 on Thursday 20 June to chat with one of our financial welbeing consultants Kate Ithell and Jack Gardiner about how we can engage your people. #REBAWellbeing

There is a common misconception that all it takes to improve people's financial wellbeing is financial education. But let's be honest - when was the last time reading some budgeting tips helped you feel less stressed about money? If you're in a stressed-out situation, can you honestly say that an educational video or blog of tips is going to be the thing that spurs you into action? When we have money worries, it can take over every aspect of our lives. Finding the time, energy, and headspace to learn about how to better manage our finances naturally often falls to the bottom of the priority list. This is why at Salary Finance, one of our obsessions is making the most common money stressors as simple as possible to deal with; helping employees help themselves. Easier said than done? Whether that's helping employees clear their high cost debt, giving them access to their earned pay when they need it most, or helping them reach their savings goal - we do it all via salary deducted solutions, giving our customers well deserved headspace back and the opportunity to take control of their money. And don't get us wrong, we deeply believe in financial education (Our Head of Financial Education, Jason Butler, would definitely agree!), but we know that on its own, it's not enough. Check out the video below to hear directly from Jason. To find out more about how you can start helping your employees help themselves by offering them tangible money solutions, reach out to our team at getintouch@salaryfinance.com