Only 29% of our wellbeing allowance was claimed last year. Scrap it or redesign it?

Look at who the 44% are before deciding. When we cut ours by salary band, non-claimers were concentrated in the lowest-paid third. They could not afford to pay 600 dollars up front and wait five weeks for reimbursement. A benefit that only works if you have spare cash is regressive whatever the policy says.

A dissenting view: we scrapped ours and put the money into the core plan, raising the paramedical and mental health limits for everyone. Nobody has to claim an allowance for that to be worth something. The people who used the allowance for gym fees were unhappy for about a month. I think the money now does more good.

The salary band cut was revealing. 71% of non-claimers are in our two lowest bands. I am proposing a card for next year and have told finance to budget at 80% utilisation. If that is refused, I will take the option of moving the money into the core plan instead.