BT, M&S, Veolia and Home Bargains to offer staff payroll savings schemes
The four employers have joined a government-backed coalition, which the Treasury says will give more than half a million extra workers a way to save straight from their pay.
By Daily Oracles News Team2 min read
Staff at BT, M&S, Veolia and Home Bargains are to be offered a way to have part of their wages paid straight into a savings pot, after the four employers joined the government-backed National Coalition of Workplace Savings. The government said on Saturday that the latest additions would give more than half a million more workers across the UK the option.
Each member commits to offering employees a payroll savings arrangement and to encouraging them to take it up. The worker decides what share of their pay goes in, and the money can be withdrawn at any time without a charge.
The four join a list that already includes Co-op, SUEZ, Bupa, OCS, Mitie, Greene King, Burger King UK and Travelodge. Tesco, which has been working closely with the coalition, has now launched a payroll savings scheme of its own.
Where the scheme came from
The coalition was set up under the government's Financial Inclusion Strategy, published in November 2025, as part of a wider plan to help people build savings they can draw on when money is tight.
Take-up by employers has been low. In a statement in August 2025 setting out how such schemes can run within its rules, the Financial Conduct Authority cited Department for Work and Pensions figures showing only 7% of UK employers offered one. The regulator said a scheme could be set up so that the employer is not carrying out a regulated activity, particularly where the money goes directly to a savings provider rather than being held by the employer. Promoting the scheme to staff can still count as a financial promotion, which has to be issued or approved by an authorised firm or fall under an exemption.
The FCA also pointed to a minimum wage risk. Employers should avoid holding the money themselves, charging for access or delaying withdrawals in ways that could take a worker's pay below the National Minimum Wage for a pay period.
The government said it would work with businesses on a factsheet setting out how payroll savings fit with minimum wage rules, so that more employers feel able to offer them.
