Ben_B0m, Author at Corinthian

23 June 2020

We hope that as always you, your family and colleagues remain safe and well.

We have pleasure in attaching our Corinthian Benefits June 2020 newsletter, which will give you some insight into what we have been doing for our clients over the past few months, how the markets have been behaving during lockdown and also to introduce you to our new social media channels.

Please do take 5 minutes from your busy schedule to have a read and some ‘Time to Think’, you will also find some useful links for your employees in these unprecedented times.

If you would like to chat to us about anything, please remember we are here to help, so do give us a call.

Corinthian Benefits June 2020 Newsletter

The key role played by the group risk industry in keeping the economy going was recently acknowledged in the House of Lords. The important influence the industry plays in keeping healthy, productive and wealthy was highlighted during a debate on the economic lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This is a long-term challenge” Lord Hunt of Wirral commented “brought into sharp, short term relief. I strongly commend to my noble friend the Minister the initiatives from GRiD, the Group Risk Development organisation, set up by the insurance sector to address these challenges.”

“Of course, free enterprise will have to be the principal driver of recovery, but it is none the less incumbent on all one-nation Conservatives to ensure that for a stronger economy and a stronger society in the post-pandemic world.”

Group Risk Development (GRiD) is the industry body for the group risk protection sector, promoting the value to British businesses of providing financial protection for their staff, enhancing their wellbeing and engagement.

“We’re really pleased that GRiD has been directly recognised as having an important part to play in the longer-term challenges facing employers in the recovery from the pandemic” commented GRiD spokesperson Katherine Moxham.

“This is about much more than the physical adaptations employers will need to make to places of work to ensure employees can return safely, it’s also about the changes they will need to make to improve ways of managing sickness and absence, and this is something the group risk industry is very experienced in.”

As Britain emerges from total lockdown, all employers will have to adapt, and not only through social distancing. The Corinthian team are fully prepared to help your business and employees back to work. If you would like to discuss the range of solutions available please get in touch at [email protected]

8 June 2020

The last few months may have felt like a relentless bombardment of information regarding the deadlines, requirements and availability of the various coronavirus support schemes – and it’s not over yet!

The latest announcement from the Government involves adaptations to the employee furlough scheme. With the clarification that employees can return from the furlough scheme on a part-time basis from 1st July 2020. This is earlier than previously predicted and means that employers can start to get business moving again.

The key points of the part time scheme are:

The hours undertaken by the employee will be paid by the employer
The government will continue to contribute 80% of the wages for the hours they do not work (up to £2,500, as well as ER NICs and pension contributions)
Arrangements must cover the MINIMUM of a 1week period
You will be expected to submit details of how many hours an employee would be expected to work in a claim period and how many were actually worked
If employees are still unable to work, they can remain on furlough and you can continue to claim the full 80%

The scheme will change again as the government element is slowly tapered:

August the government will continue to contribute 80% of the wages up to £2,500 for hours the employee doesn’t work but employers will pay ER NICs and pension contributions

September the government will contribute 70% of the wages up to £2,187.50 for hours the employee doesn’t work but employers will pay ER NICs, pension contributions and 10% of wages to make up to 80% (up to £2,500)

October the government will contribute 60% of the wages up to £1,875 for hours the employee doesn’t work but employers will pay ER NICs, pension contributions and 20% of wages to make up to 80% (up to £2,500)

(The cap on the furlough grant will be proportional to the hours not worked).

NIC bills vary due to employee size, smaller employers should not be significantly impacted by the tapering.

IMPORTANT DATES:

The final date you can furlough an employee for the first time will be 10th June

The furlough scheme will close to new applicants from 30th June. From this point onwards ONLY employees previously furloughed for a full three-week period prior to 30th June will be eligible.

7 May 2020

The Governments’ Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has proven a popular option for employers looking for ways to minimise workforce losses and disruption during the pandemic; in a recent survey of 1,000 employers almost half (46%) have already used it to furlough staff, while another 10% plan to do so.

The survey, commissioned by the CIPD (the professional body for HR and people development) also found that more than three quarters of the employers who have already furloughed staff (76%) or plan to (78%) said that making the scheme more flexible to enable a reduced-hours return to work would be useful.

“Letting furloughed staff work some hours, where possible, will enable organisations to bring back workers from furlough gradually while rebuilding their business. This will be vital as lockdown measures are eased over a number of weeks or months and will reduce the risk of large-scale redundancies in this next phase of the crisis”, commented CIPD Chief Executive, Peter Cheese.

In addition to greater flexibility, employers would also like the scheme to be extended to the end of September (at present the scheme is only planned to be available until June).

“The Government must also consider extending the scheme to at least the end of September”, Mr Cheese continued, “this will provide more certainty for employers and ensure that there is no ‘cliff edge’ exit from furlough straight to redundancy for hundreds of thousands of workers at the end of June”.

The CIPD warns that ‘without these changes the current JRS could prove to be a waiting room for unemployment and fail to protect significant numbers of the jobs it set out to save’.

Corinthian has put together a Job Retention Scheme FAQ – https://corinthianbenefits.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Coronavirus-Job-Retention-Scheme-FAQs.pdf Our Corinthian team members are here to help.

23 April 2020

During these difficult times, it is important to ensure you’re looking after your general wellbeing. Therefore, we’ve put together a Wellbeing Resources list that might help you and that you may wish to share with your friends, family and colleagues. We have researched some of the best podcasts, Apps and websites to help with mental and physical wellbeing.

Stay safe and keep well.

Wellbeing Resources

Many people are discovering that the routines of day-to-day life aren’t the only things to be affected by lockdown. Many people are noticing interrupted and altered sleep patterns, jumbled thought processes and increased levels of stress and anxiety. While some are reveling in the opportunity to step away from their usual stressful or disordered routines and to take time for themselves.

However you are dealing with the current restrictions, the Corinthian Team have created a Wellbeing Resource full of useful links, podcasts and apps to help.

EXERCISE

One of the main ways you can improve both your thought processes and sleep quality is to incorporate exercise into your daily routine. Venturing outside provides a change of scenery, fresh area and a break from your new work or family scenario. You could always incorporate this with listening to one of the many wellness and mindfulness podcasts available.

If you cant get outside there are various indoor workouts requiring minimal space and equipment – like the daily workout from the body coach – Joe Wicks.

MINDFULNESS

If you had previously filed ‘mindfulness’ away under the ‘not relevant to me’ part of your brain, it’s possible that the current situation has made you consider your mental health more than normal.

“A mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique”

Mindfulness refers to anything that can help to calm your mind and bring your thoughts to the present – lifting your mood and focusing your mind in a calmer, more ordered state; Not just restricted to meditating or perfecting deep-breathing, our guide details some of the many mental health resources available – including those from MIND and Headspace.

WORK

Creating a new, healthy, working practice to navigate these times shouldn’t be disregarded. Neither should the importance of a well set-up working area

SOCIAL

As sociable creatures the lack of human contact shouldn’t be underestimated – and work emails and calls don’t count! Make sure to make time to stay in touch with friends and family, video calling apps like Houseparty and Zoom have made this easier than ever.

21 April 2020

As we head into week 4 of lockdown, we see the re-start of home schooling following the Easter break. If like many of us you are struggling with the balancing act that is working from home whilst trying to home school children of different ages, we thought this guide may be useful for you and your employees.

The website http://www.twinkl.co.uk is also pretty useful, together with the BBC Bitesize programmes which are split across all age groups.

Good luck, and stay safe!

Stay at Home Schooling

1 April 2020

What is the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme? Click on this link for the latest of our FAQ factsheets to understand more.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme FAQs

24 March 2020

At Corinthian Benefits we like to help all of our clients as much as we can, whether this is help around financial matters or wellbeing questions.

We know that in these unprecedented times, people have worries around paying bills, anxiety levels are rising and many can feel lonely as we go into isolation. Here at Corinthian, we are looking to take some of that pressure from you and your employees if we can.

Please see attached the flyer that we have distributed to all of our clients today to offer help.

If you think that your own staff would benefit from this, please give us a call or email us at [email protected]

Corinthian Benefits – Here to Help

20 March 2020

There is no doubt that this is a very scary and uncertain time for the world, Britain and her businesses.

Understandably, much of our day to day business at Corinthian currently involves dealing with clients desperately seeking answers to their financial questions. As the situation across the world changes on an almost hourly basis we are doing our best to keep our customers updated.

Redundancy and your pension contributions – what should you do?

One of the main concerns for people is whether they will still have a job in a few months and what may happen to their pension if redundancy becomes a reality. If the unthinkable does happen, you have a number of options:

Continue to keep paying contributions from your bank account.
Transfer to another pension with no penalty charge
Cease contributions but remain invested
If you’re over 55 you could start taking your pension benefits

Even if your employment continues you may have to make the difficult decision of reducing your outgoings; in which case you can choose to stop making pension contributions. Though if you do stop your employer contribution will also probably stop.

Likewise, if you are asked to work reduced hours or a shorter week your pension contributions will be adjusted accordingly.

What if I have to claim SSP?

Given the current situation the likelihood of having to take time off due to illness is higher than ever. Unless your contract of employment states otherwise both employer and employee contributions decrease if sick pay is less than normal pay.

If salary exchange is used, employers must follow the varied contract of employment set up at the outset of salary exchange and maintain the agreed level of pension contributions during any form of paid sick leave. Employer contributions will be based on the employee’s actual earnings during sick leave. SSP must be paid in full in cash and cannot be reduced by the salary exchange agreement.

What about my debts?

On 17th March the Government announced that those suffering financial hardship could be given a 3-month holiday on mortgage payments; (most providers will adjust your monthly payments after the 3-month period).

No specific provision was made for loans and credit cards, but should you have issues in making payments talk to your provider as soon as possible.

Is this potentially a good time for investing?

Whilst the immediate value of many investments has fallen there is always the argument that investments should be viewed as a long-term option and so will hopefully rise again.

DON’T PANIC! If you are concerned about your investments – it’s what we’re here for.

The knee-jerk reaction is to stop paying into your fund but when stock markets are low it can in fact be a great time to invest as when they recover your pension value will increase.

What is the long-term outlook?

We really don’t know what the final outcome of all this will be. All we know is that we will continue to tailor our advice and recommendations to our individual clients and give the best options for each personal situation.