7 minutes | Friday, 20 April 2018
With a rise in workplace-related stress, illnesses and mental health issues, over half of working adults believe that UK businesses are not doing enough to support the well-being - including mental health - of their employees, according to a new study.
Current treatments such as health check-ups, cognitive behavioural therapy and chiropractic treatment are provided by the NHS, through National Insurance contributions, but seven out of 10 of those surveyed by Westfield Health said that the NHS does not have a big enough budget to provide well-being services like these.
So is National Insurance becoming unfit for purpose? The nation doesn’t seem to know, with only 19% of employees knowing how much National Insurance they pay and only 10% knowing how much of the contribution goes where, be it the NHS, social security, their state pension or supporting other Government departments.
Similar to the recent roll-out of the workplace pension scheme, could a government-backed auto-enrolment scheme for well-being programmes - funded by employers and by a portion of employees’ National Insurance contributions - be one of many solutions to address the NHS’s long-term financial needs?
David Capper, Commercial Director of Westfield Health, and Richard Holmes, Director of Wellbeing for Westfield Health, joined us to discuss the findings.