ONE of York's biggest employers has pledged to look after the financial health of its employees through a new scheme.

Bosses at the Holgate Road-based CPP Card Protection Plan, which employs nearly 1,000 people, have signed a deal with the P&MM Group, a UK premier performance improvement company, to offer a Lifestyle Financial Health plan. The idea behind the plan is to provide employees with impartial expert advice on their personal finances via a website and confidential helpline number.

It will enable CPP employees to talk about a range of issues from debt advice to balancing budgets and how to best manage their money.

The partnership with P&MM is the first contract that CPP Financial Health has signed within the Employee Benefits sector.

Incorporated into P&MM's employee benefits portfolio, Lifestyle Financial Health is a new and contemporary product that offers employers the opportunity to demonstrate they are committed to the financial well being of their employees.

The new product will give employees access to a comprehensive Financial Health assistance product, which will provide them with the education, information and advice to make important financial decisions with clarity and confidence.

Richard Davies, business development director at P&MM said: "Lifestyle Financial Health has been developed on three key pillars and is designed to help employees achieve their financial goals and improve their financial capability.

"The product is designed to be Proactive - designed to prevent employees from financial breakdown, Holistic - the offering will deal with the individual's whole financial situation, and Transparent - offering the employees non-judgemental advice and support at all times.

Shirley Woolham, head of financial health at CPP, said: "The partnership with P&MM is a significant move for CPP, taking the company into a previously untouched market - the Employee Benefits market.

"Lifestyle Financial Health is a unique employee product offering, which we anticipate can be claimed as a non-taxable benefit through employers and we are delighted to be able to offer this product as part of the CPP Financial Health portfolio. Moving forward, we are now looking at how CPP can further assist its customer base to help them make more of their money."

Updated: 09:28 Thursday, February 24, 2005