Defra launches financial wellbeing hub for 23,800 employees

Defra (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) is working with Neyber to pilot one of the first financial wellbeing hubs across the Civil Service for its 23,800 group employees.

The Hub will support employees’ financial capabilities by providing personalised guidance based on specific interests and financial goals. Money basics, credit, budgeting, life events are included, along with calculators for budgeting, debt consolidation, savings and credit. Individuals can access webinars, podcasts and articles to plan and start their journey to better financial wellbeing.

In 2015, Defra group took part in the Money Advice Service funded “What Works” study. Specifically, the category was: ‘How can we help working age adults to improve their financial capability, develop budgeting and tracking habits, build up a savings buffer to withstand financial shocks and/or set financial goals for key life events within the workplace (e.g. workplace savings schemes, financial capability interventions etc)’.

Speaking to their colleagues across the Defra group they asked them a full range of questions to obtain their feedback on how they felt about their financial wellbeing and current level of financial education. Seventy-five percent of those surveyed felt that Defra, as an employer, should be providing access to financial education and guidance for all employees.

Natalie Jutla, Employee Offer and Benefits Lead for the Defra group, said:

“Defra is always looking to expand how we support our staff, not only on the job as they develop their careers, but also more widely in areas such as combating mental health problems or help with financial education and how to manage finances.

“Our work with the Money Advice Service showed there was strong demand for financial education and the new Hub will be an essential tool for Defra staff and a key part of our offer to our teams.”

Monica Kalia, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Neyber, said: 

“Natalie is extremely passionate about financial wellbeing and has been on a journey to engage Defra stakeholders to embed a programme to support financial education in the workplace. This first action offers inclusive and personalised financial education.

“In doing this, Defra will also be able to monitor user trends on The Hub. This identifies gaps in staff knowledge to feed into future content, webinars and onsite activity, aiming to support employees’ financial capabilities, no matter what their current situation is.”