Friends Life launches first cancer-specific workplace benefit

Friends Life Group Cancer Cover is available to any company looking to insure 100 or more members of staff and the benefit will pay a fixed amount of £25,000 to employees who are diagnosed with a cancer covered by the plan.

It comes as Macmillan Cancer Support predicted last week that there will be a record high 2.5 million people living with cancer in the UK in 2015. They have also reported that on average, 4 out of 5 cancer patients are £570 a month worse off because of the illness, partly due to travel costs to hospital appointments.

The launch of the cover also comes following research by Friends Life revealing that over half (51%) of UK workers want to be more cared for by their employer.

Those aged 25-34 appear to be the most dissatisfied with almost 6 in 10 wanting their employer to care for them more. That figure drops to 4 in 10 for the over 55s - the lowest of all the age groups surveyed.

Anna Spender, Head of Group Protection Proposition at Friends Life, said:

“Almost 70% of critical illness claims across the industry are related to cancer and while cancer incidence rates are increasing, so are survival rates. Given the research from Macmillan and an ageing work population, the prevalence of cancer in the workplace is likely to rise so we wanted to do something that would really benefit employees.

“Group Cancer Cover has been designed to be affordable and simple, providing a level of benefit to help with the additional costs that people face while going through cancer treatment. We began developing it after research by Capita Employee Benefits looked at what products employees valued against what employers actually provided. It means companies with budget constraints that may have little in the way of workplace benefits can take advantage of it and offer their staff valuable cover.

“Making employees feel cared for is a really important part of modern business. A good value workplace benefits package can help recruit and retain staff and we believe our cancer-specific policy will encourage more companies to think about what they currently offer.”