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The Talent Economy 2025

Financial education could be the missing piece to your employee benefits strategy

Scott Morrison

England Partnerships and Engagement Manager, Money and Pensions Service (MaPS)

Employers can boost financial wellbeing through savings schemes, education and support — especially for women and young workers — helping staff feel secure, reduce stress and build long-term resilience.


At MaPS, we define financial wellbeing as feeling secure and in control. It’s about making the most of your everyday money, managing the unexpected and being on track for a healthy financial future. Being stressed about money, however, can affect mental and physical health, relationships and work.  

Finances impact overall wellbeing and performance

Research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that when employees experience financial distress, their wellbeing and job performance suffer. Over a quarter of people (28%) said money worries have impacted work, commonly through lost sleep, health problems, including stress or anxiety and difficulty concentrating or decision-making.1  

Supporting employee financial wellbeing 

Employers can help by providing financial education, offering resources to manage debt and finances and creating a supportive environment for employees to discuss financial challenges. Implementing a payroll savings scheme can support employees in saving and benefit their overall financial wellbeing.  

Funded by MaPS and other partners, the latest NEST Insight report demonstrated that an opt-out approach to workplace savings can help employees to save consistently over time and build their financial security and resilience. 

Employers can help by providing financial education,
offering resources to manage debt and finances
and creating a supportive environment.

Women’s financial wellbeing 

Women can face more financial wellbeing challenges than men because, on average, women earn less; women make up 72% of the part-time workforce, and only 35% are in full-time employment compared to men (54%).2

They also tend to be the main caregivers for children and elderly parents, often resulting in lower income. This all means women are earning less for both their everyday essentials and savings.3 

When supporting women specifically, employers can provide flexible working arrangements to aid those with caring responsibilities, for example. 

Supporting younger employees 

MaPS research found that a significant percentage of people aged 18–25 are unsure about pensions and how they work.4 For younger employees, businesses can support them to engage early in their income and pension.  

By offering pension skills to your younger staff, you are equipping them with a good financial education and ensuring their careers are on the right financial footing. We offer a range of free and impartial expertise that can help employers to increase financial wellbeing for staff.

Visit maps.org.uk to find out more. 


[1] CIPD. 2023. Employee financial wellbeing: a practical guide.
[2] Money & Pensions Service. 2024. International Women’s Day: closing the savings and pension gender gap.
[3] Money & Pensions Service. 2023. Cross-cutting themes of the UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing: gender, mental health and ethnicity.
[4] Money & Pensions Service. 2025. Businesses have a key role in helping apprentices understand pensions, as only one in ten young people correctly answer basic pension questions.

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