The importance of financial education.

25th January 2016

Jonathan Watts-Lay Director, WEALTH at work, a leading provider of financial education in the workplace, supported by guidance and advice, discusses with Employee Benefits, the importance of financial education now that we are almost one year on from the introduction of the pension changes in April 2015.

He comments, “Even though the new freedoms have been about giving people more choice, for many it has just made the situation more complex.”

Watts-Lay goes on to explain that there is also an opportunity for financial education to complement an employer’s wider benefits offer, especially its flexible benefits package. Watts-Lay says; “For example, if employees are expected to make decisions about the flex scheme in, say, February, they’re going to have some major financial decisions to take.”

WattsLay concludes by commenting on employees financial wellbeing, “The links between debt, money worries and stress, lower productivity and absence are increasingly well recognised by employers, there is a commercial cost to people having money worries. Then there’s also the cost of having employees ‘stuck’ at work because they are unable to afford to retire.”

To read the full article in Employee Benefits, please click here.