Benefits of kind

Thank you for emailing the Customer Service Centre. Due to a high volume
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FAO B Ovens

28/04/2010

Dear B Ovens,

Request for Information in terms of the Freedom of Information Act
Enquiry Subject - Finance
Case. Ref. 101002368141

I acknowledge your request dated 28/04/10 for information in terms of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, which was received by us on 28/04/2010.

Your request has been forwarded to the relevant service officer, who will provide a response to your request as soon as possible and not later than 20 working days following receipt of your request. Please allow postal time for receipt of the response. Should the officer require further information from you to enable your request to be processed, you will be contacted directly.

In the event that you have not received a response to your enquiry by the timescale mentioned (allowing time for postage), you have the right to request an internal review relating to the council's handling of your enquiry for information by writing to Gordon Blair, Chief Legal Officer, West Lothian Civic Centre, Howden South Road, Livingston, West Lothian, EH54 6FF (01506 281695; e-mail: [email address]). You must exercise this right within 60 days of the date your request for information was received.

You may be interested to know that the Council already makes a large amount of information available in many ways. We are required to list the types of information, which are routinely made available in a document called the 'Publication Scheme'. This sets out the types of information which are already available. The aim is to ensure that a significant amount of information is made available without people having to ask for it. You can view the Publication Scheme at any of the council's libraries or offices and it is available on the councils website at www.westlothian.gov.uk

Yours faithfully

West Lothian Council

Information is available in Braille, tape, large print and community languages. Please contact the Interpretation and Translation Service on 0131 242 8181.[/bookmark]

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Dear B Ovens,

Request for Information in term of the Freedom of Information Act
Enquiry Subject: Finance
Case. Ref. 101002368141

I refer to your request for information dated 28/04/2010 and would respond that we do not provide our employees with any benefits in kind.

Our employees are provided with a voluntary benefit scheme, whereby they can receive discounts for shops and services and other special offers issued by third party organisations, but as this is an entirely voluntary scheme and there is no cash value for the benefits received as well as the fact that we do not pay for the provision of the voluntary benefit scheme, there is no benefit in kind taxation liable for the scheme or any of the benefits provided through it.

You are free to use the information supplied in this response for your own non-commercial research or private study purposes. The information may also be used for any other purpose allowed by a limitation or exception in copyright law, such as news reporting. Any such use must be in context and must not be misleading. Any other type of re-use, for example by publishing the information in analogue or digital form, including on the internet or commercial use, will require the permission of the intellectual property owner and copyright owner.

Further details as to how to apply to re-use information supplied by us can be found on our website at http://www.westlothian.gov.uk/Council_an...

If you have any complaint about the Council's handling of your request for information, you may require the Council to review its actions and decisions in relation to this response. Please write, within 60 working days from the date of your request, to Gordon Blair, Chief Legal Officer, West Lothian Civic Centre, Howden South Road, Livingston, West Lothian, EH54 6FF (01506 281695; e-mail: [email address]).

You may, within a further six months, if your are dissatisfied with the outcome or with the Council's failure to review its actions and decisions in relation to this response, apply in writing to the Scottish Information Commissioner, Kinburn Castle, Doubledykes Road, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DS (01334 464610; email [email address]) requesting his decision in this matter.

Yours faithfully

Neil Macleod
West Lothian Council

In accordance with our Corporate Policy you may be contacted shortly to obtain your views on how we handled your request.

West Lothian is the UK Council of the Year 2006

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Thank you for emailing the Customer Service Centre. Due to a high volume
of emails being received on a daily basis, we shall respond to your email
as soon as possible. For the time being, please do not email any repairs
or emergency requests, as they may not be dealt with immediately.

West Lothian is the UK Council of the Year 2006

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CRM Case Ref - 101002368141

Thank you for emailing Customer Service in respect of Finance, your enquiry has been forwarded to Finance for their attention, you will receive a reply in due course.

Should you require further assistance in the meantime please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,

Customer Service

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Dear Mr Ovens,
Request for Information in term of the Freedom of Information Act
Enquiry Subject: Finance
Case. Ref. 101002368141

I refer to your request for further information dated 04/05/2010 and would
respond as follows:

1) Can you give me a full list of employees who receive this Benefit
scheme? - All council employees are eligible to join the scheme. As the
scheme is voluntary, we do not have a list of employees who are members
of the scheme. I am aware however that the current level of registered
users stands at around 2600 employees. The council also offers some
local discounts that it has negotiated with local retailers. A list of
these is attached.

2) Can you tell me the full list of 3rd party organisations who provide
these special offers and discounts? - I do not have a list of all of
the third party organisations that are offered, but the scheme website
states that there are over 1000 retailers listed on the site. The
company that offers the scheme is Asperity and they may be able to
provide you with more details. More information about them can be found
on their website at [1]http://www.asperity.co.uk

3) I would like a full financial total please of what these benefit
are, i.e., health care, dental care, education, holidays, etc. - There
is no cost to the council for this scheme or any of the benefits
offered. As for the benefits offered, these vary from discounts to
cashback offers. The attached list of benefits that have been
negotiated by the council will provided an indication of the sort of
benefits that are offered. The discounts offered by Asperity are
provided through a contractual arrangement and the website sits behind a
secure login. As such, I cannot provide you with access to our
scheme. Further details of the benefits offered by Asperity can be
obtained from them and you can find out how to contact them through
[2]http://www.asperity.co.uk

The council also offers childcare vouchers and a cycle to work scheme,
whereby employees can make tax savings on the purchase of childcare
vouchers or on the purchase of a bicycle. Details of these schemes can
be found at the HMRC site
- [3]http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/payroll/spec...
In terms of your original request, these schemes do not attract benefit
in kind taxation, however, you may be interested to know that the
council offers these schemes as well as the voluntary discount scheme.

Should you require anything further, please do not hesitate to get in
touch.

You are free to use the information supplied in this response for your own
non-commercial research or private study purposes. The information may
also be used for any other purpose allowed by a limitation or exception in
copyright law, such as news reporting. Any such use must be in context
and must not be misleading. Any other type of re-use, for example by
publishing the information in analogue or digital form, including on the
internet or commercial use, will require the permission of the
intellectual property owner and copyright owner.
Further details as to how to apply to re-use information supplied by us
can be found on our website at
[4]http://www.westlothian.gov.uk/Council_an...

If you have any complaint about the Council's handling of your request for
information, you may require the Council to review its actions and
decisions in relation to this response. Please write, within 60 working
days from the date of your request, to Gordon Blair, Chief Legal Officer,
West Lothian Civic Centre, Howden South Road, Livingston, West Lothian,
EH54 6FF (01506 281695; e-mail: [5][email address]).

You may, within a further six months, if your are dissatisfied with the
outcome or with the Council's failure to review its actions and decisions
in relation to this response, apply in writing to the Scottish Information
Commissioner, Kinburn Castle, Doubledykes Road, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DS
(01334 464610; email [6][email address]) requesting his
decision in this matter.

Yours faithfully

Neil Macleod

Support Services

Tel: 01506 281957

email: [7][email address]

More information and access to council services is available online at
[8]www.westlothian.gov.uk
P Please consider the environment before printing this email.

West Lothian is the UK Council of the Year 2006

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Dear Mr Ovens,

The employee benefit scheme was put out to tender on the basis that the
scheme was to be provided at no cost to the council.

Asperity are a specialist voluntary benefit provider who negotiate
volume discounts on behalf of the million or more employees across the
UK who are part of their scheme. The exact nature of their business
model is not known to me, but I am aware that the basic business model
for voluntary benefit providers is that they may enjoy some form of
commission from various companies that they promote to the scheme
members and/or some form of advertising income. In addition, many of
the voluntary benefit providers also provide fully flexible benefit
plans that cost a set amount per capita. As these fully flexible
schemes are effectively funded from paying clients, the discounts that
have already been negotiated for the flexible benefit schemes can be
offered at no cost to the voluntary benefit scheme members. This is an
effective way for these companies to build up large volumes of users,
which is essential for the negotiation of discounted goods and services.
If you would like to know the details of Asperity's business model, then
you should contact Asperity using the information provided in my earlier
response.

As you will note from the explanation above, employee benefit schemes
fall into two categories:

1) Flexible benefit schemes, where employees are offered health care,
dental plans, life insurance, company cars, additional annual leave etc.
all of which is paid for (at least partly) by the employer and all of
which are potentially taxable benefits; and

2) Voluntary benefit schemes, where employees are offered a range of
discounted goods and services which are paid for entirely by the
employee and are thus not taxable. (These discounts are similar to
those that members of the public receive from time to time in the form
of discount vouchers, buy one get one free vouchers etc. These discounts
are often advertised and can be found for instance through your
letterbox, in a magazine/newspaper, one the back of a parking meter
tickets, etc.)

The two benefit schemes are very different in terms of taxation and cost
implication for employers. West Lothian Council does not offer a
flexible benefit scheme for its employees, only a voluntary benefit
scheme. Therefore, our employees do not have any tax implications and
the council, as an employer, does not incur any cost in providing the
scheme.

I would refer you to the following specialist employee benefit website
that provides information relating to voluntary benefit schemes:

http://www.employeebenefits.co.uk/cgi-bi...

and

http://www.employeebenefits.co.uk/benefi...

As you will see from these web pages, some scheme providers make a
charge for a voluntary benefit scheme service, some do not. Asperity
may well make a charge to some of their customers, but our tender was
specifically on a nil cost basis. As there is no cost to the council
for our voluntary benefit scheme (and we do not provide a flexible
benefit scheme) no taxpayers money is used to provide our employees with
the benefits that they enjoy from their membership of our scheme.

I hope that this clarifies matters for you, but should you wish anything
further, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Yours sincerely,

Neil Macleod

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Dear Mr Ovens,

That is a question that I am unable to answer in terms of the Freedom of
Information legislation. If you contact Asperity or any of the numerous
voluntary benefit scheme providers, they may be willing to divulge their
business models, but they are not bound to release the information in
terms of the law.

My personal response would be that I presume that the answer lies in
volume return. In other words, if a company offers a 15% discount on a
holiday, that company should enjoy an increased share of the market
compared to their competitors who are not offering a discount. This
only works however if you have guaranteed access to millions of
employees signed up to a scheme, which these providers have.

Equally, similar offers exist for the general public. Offers such as
the 2 for 1 pizza offer currently advertised by the Sunday Times
http://www.pizzaexpress-offers.co.uk/the... are designed to
generate volume footfall into this particular company's restaurants. The
pizza company benefits from tapping into a defined group - this being
the readership of the Sunday Times. A comparable scenario would be the
pizza company tapping into a defined group of employees - this being
those employees who are signed up to a voluntary benefit scheme. The
Sunday Times are offering their readership a discount in the same way
that the council offers their employees discounts. The aims are
similar, to generate a sense of reward and to secure loyalty.

As for the pizza company offering the discount, once you, as a customer,
have sampled their food and service, you will decide for yourself
whether you will return there again. If the company is successful at
securing your return trade, then they have benefitted. The overall
costs of offering the vouchers are probably comparable or cheaper to
providing a billboard, magazine or TV advertising campaign, but the hook
is much better, especially in the current economic climate. Either
way, that company has managed to lure you in to their restaurant this
week, spending additional money on wine and further courses which monies
may otherwise have gone to a competitor. Any vouchers that are not used
result in little cost to the company. Every voucher that is used will
generate profit. The use of vouchers and discounts can thus provide a
very targeted, productive return with little wasted cost.

Market forces and consumer spending are complex areas for consideration
and the correct manipulation or tapping of either will ensure success
where others fail.

I hope that this goes some way to answering your question and in the
event of your using the voucher above, I hope that you enjoy your meal.

As always, should you require any further information, please do not
hesitate to get in touch.

Yours sincerely,

Neil Macleod.

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Dear Mr Ovens,

On further consideration of your request, it may be that I have
misunderstood your point.

Asperity do not provide the discount, they merely act as a medium
through which companies can offer discounts to a defined audience of
employees. It is up to each company that participates in the scheme as
to what they can afford to offer. This would come at no cost to
Asperity. Indeed, as mentioned in my earlier email, Asperity may charge
companies a fee to participate in the scheme or provide a commission
based on the volume of business generated.

The model is thus one of low risk to a provider such as Asperity.
However, the catch is that providers must have secured a sufficiently
large defined audience to make it worthwhile for companies to
participate. Asperity are the UK's largest scheme provider and as such
would appear to have succeeded in securing a suitably large audience.

Yours sincerely,

Neil Macleod

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