Life assurance should be extended to dependents so that should a tragedy occur, employees have some financial resources to support their family, Punter Southall Health & Protection Consulting (PSHPC) has said.
While life assurance is the most common employee benefit provided in the UK, PSHPC has argued that in many ways the benefit is illogical as it commonly applies to the working parent only and not the dependent partner and parent that stays at home to look after the family.
PSHPC director John Dean commented: "The tragedy of losing a partner and parent obviously impacts a family on many levels, but employers could help ease the inevitable financial burden. Companies should ask themselves a few simple questions: ‘If a dependent dies, would it impact our employee financially? How would they cover life at home? Would they need to change job roles?'"
According to Dean, companies across the UK currently have no provision in place to support key staff in their current role if their dependent partner dies, which could put the organisation at considerable risk at the same time.
Dean argued that typically it would cost less than 10% extra on premiums to extend one times salary life assurance to dependent partners with children under 21.
"That's a small cost to pay for a company's genuine chance to help support a family when they really need it," said Dean.
