Cartwright, the pension specialist for defined benefit and hybrid schemes, has given each of its employees a one-off cost-of-living payment of up to £2,000.
This extra financial support builds on its cost-of-living support approach last summer, where all staff received £1,000 to help ease the financial impact. It is in addition to their salary, profit share and other performance-related bonuses.
According to the business, it made the decision to award employees with another cost-of-living payment following the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reporting food inflation to be at 18.4% in May.
Ian Cartwright, founder and chairman of Cartwright Group, said: “I think everyone hoped the significant pressure on individuals and families due to the crisis would have eased since last year. However, cost-of-living pressures during the first half of 2023 led us to take yet more action to help support our staff.”
Robin Pearce, operations director at Cartwright Group, added: “It’s our people that make our business a success and these are challenging times for all of us. We are deeply proud of their commitment and the supportive culture we have all fostered here at Cartwright. Therefore, it’s vital we continue to support our colleagues if and where we can.”
Cartwright, which is an employee owned business, also offers its staff flexible working hours and an employer pension scheme.
In giving its employees this payment, it follows in the footsteps of the University of Sheffield, which awarded a £1,000 payment to all of its employees last November, equating to an £8.4 million investment, in response to the rising cost of living. Casual workers and graduate teaching assistants were provided with an equivalent increase in their hourly rate of pay for any work they undertook between October 2022 and July 2023.