Salary sacrifice benefits health

Published on 28/10/2012 00:00

IN HIS article “The national tendency towards unhealthiness is not the whole story of football woe” (Sport, 21 October), Richard Bath claims that efforts to tackle lack of physical activity are being thwarted by red tape. He cites an example where eight out of ten people at a magazine where he works did not take up gym membership after being told the cost had been “effectively doubled”.

I am dismayed that the laziness of your journalist’s arithmetic may now deter more employers from implementing, and employees from joining, Salary Sacrifice Schemes (SSSs) which remain a fantastic health benefit.

Last year’s changes, following a European Court VAT judgment, have resulted in the cost of a gym membership through an SSS increasing by between 14 per cent and 19 per cent (dependent on tax bands), not the 100 per cent as stated in the article. And for most people employed in the public sector there would have been no increase at all as their employers are not VAT registered.

It is regrettable that your readers were not informed of the still considerable financial benefits (32 per cent to 43 per cent tax savings) of SSSs which include the Cycle To Work scheme.

Alan Burke CA, Edinburgh