Important Updates
Below we’ve summarised some important changes to your benefits that will take effect from 1st January 2025. Please scroll down further for more detailed information and refer to the resources available inside your myChoice account.
- UK Childcare Vouchers (CCV): The CCV Plan will be retired with effect from 1st January 2025.
- Cycle to Work: As a reminder, team members who enrol in this scheme are required to comply with government guidelines.
- Leisure Travel Insurance: Team members selecting this benefit are kindly reminded not to travel against the advice of the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO).
As a general rule when you select your benefits, please make sure you are comfortable with the cost before you commit to your choices. Whilst every effort is made each year to negotiate market competitive group rates for all HPE benefit plans on offer, there can be instances in which premiums for some benefits have risen due to inflation and supply chain pressures, as well as post-pandemic utilisation trends in the benefits marketplace.
Update: Childcare Vouchers (CCV) - Plan Closure
The UK Childcare Voucher (CCV) plan will be closed with effect from 1st January 2025. These changes are in line with HPE’s benefits strategy to focus and optimise benefits program delivery. Impacted team members will no longer be able to make CCV Plan selections in their myChoice account and all salary sacrifice contributions to Care-4 will cease from 1st January 2025 onwards. Team members who currently participate in the CCV Plan were informed of these changes by email on 12 August 2024 and again on 26 September 2024. Further guidance has been provided in those emails.
For more information on UK government supported childcare programmes, please visit https://www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare and use the Government Childcare Calculator to check your eligibility to get help with childcare costs.
Update: Cycle to Work - Limit and current government guidance
The maximum amount that you can spend annually on a bicycle and/or safety equipment remains at £2,000. Whether you’re considering selecting Cycle to Work or you’re already enrolled in the scheme, your participation should comply with government guidelines. The Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions savings this benefit attracts assumes the bicycle is used mainly for ordinary commuting and/or business journeys (defined by HMRC as the ‘main use test’). Now that more of us are hybrid working, it’s your responsibility to make sure you will be using the bicycle in line with the latest guidance. The following extract from www.gov.uk explains the guidance in force as of June 2022 (although this is subject to change at any point thereafter):
“COVID-19 impact on the ‘main use’ test
COVID-19 has changed working practices. Many employees who may have been provided with a cycle or cyclists’ safety equipment have increasingly been working from home. It may not, therefore, be possible for them to meet the ‘mainly for qualifying journeys’ condition necessary for this exemption to apply.
Provided employees have joined a scheme, with a cycle or cyclists’ safety equipment provided to them on or before 20 December 2020, the qualifying journeys condition will not be applied until after 5 April 2022.
Employees who have a cycle or cyclists’ safety equipment provided after 20 December 2020 will need to meet all the conditions for the exemption to apply.”
The latest guidance can be found here.
Update: Leisure Travel Insurance - Reminder to follow UK FCO advice before travelling
The Leisure Travel Insurance benefit remains available for 2025. Participants of this scheme are reminded to avoid travelling to destinations against the travel advice provided by the United Kingdom’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO). Claims submitted under this scheme must comply with the provider’s terms and conditions before they can be considered for settlement. Please refer to the detailed information and policy documents available inside your myChoice account.
To access the information from last year, please click here.