Friends Life has launched a group cancer cover product – the first employer-funded cancer-specific workplace benefit in the UK.
The group cancer cover is available to any company seeking 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 recently predicted last that there will be a record high 2.5m people living with cancer in the UK in 2015.
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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.
Anna Spender, head of group protection proposition at Friends Life, said: "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."
The launch of this benefit comes as new research by Friends Life has found that half of UK workers want to be more cared for by their employer.
A survey of 2000 employed people in the UK carried out on behalf of Friends Life in December 2014 found over 51% wanted their company to care for them more.
A third, however, said they were happy with how their employer currently cares for them.
Unusually, 3% of those who responded actually wanted their employer to care for them less.
Spender added: "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."
