Employers to help staff sort out their finances

Employees will be granted an hour to give themselves a financial health check this week – and employers will pay for it.

An initiative called "My Budget Day" is to be launched on November 21st after a pilot project showed that if employees were allowed one hour per month to read the policy small print, discuss budgeting amongst their work colleagues and to use work computers to research best deals that they could save as much as £5,000.

With home insurance premiums, car tax, credit card, mortgages and other financial demands, many Brits find it hard to cope.

My Budget Day hopes to combat stress-related illness, which affects one in five employees during their working life. Money worries are listed as the most common causes of stress.

Steve Folkard of AXA said: "Spending an hour a month on your finances isn’t long but it can make a huge difference to your financial situation.

"Just sitting down and reviewing your money is a crucial first step to saving some cash."

A new budgeting device called "Spendometer" can now be downloaded to an internet-enabled mobile phone. It helps people to keep within set targets in order to control their spending.

Once the target is almost reached, the phone will send an audible alert to the shopper to warn them about intended purchases.

19/11/2007 11:27:36