Medical insurance is closing in on pensions as the most sought-after "work perk", a new study claims to show.
The popularity of insurance as a workplace perk has risen over the past year - at the expense of pensions.
According to a new survey from Bupa, employee demand for private medical insurance (PMI) rose to 40 per cent, up from 37 per cent in 2007.
By contrast, pensions declined from 55 to 49 percent, cutting the popularity gap from 18 to nine percent. Seperately, the firm found that free health assessments and free gym membership are the top two most-requested "work perks" relating to health.
The survey also found that an overall majority of British workers want their employers to take "more responsibility" for their health needs. This chimes with the findings of a recent department for work and pensions review, which called for companies to expand their wellbeing provisions for staff.
Ann Greenwood at Bupa commented: "The rising popularity of workplace health benefits, particularly PMI, reflects changing attitudes to personal healthcare - people are now keen to have more control of their healthcare options rather than leaving them to chance.
"They want faster access to specialists and no waiting lists, but most of all they are concerned about hospital cleanliness, with almost three in every four citing clean hospitals as a key reason for buying PMI – up eight percent on 2007."
