Following conversations with staff, the Employee Connect Council has created a community board which is a dedicated area for staff to view the latest discounts and money saving tips and tricks for you and your family.
If you have any information you think would be useful to include, please email gtd.staffcouncil@nhs.net.
Your Employee Assistance Programme
The Employee Assistance Programme is a specialist wellbeing service that is accessible to all employed staff, their partner/spouse and dependent children over 16 years old still living at home. It is a free and confidential service that is accessible seven-days-a-week, 24 hours a day via the dedicated web portal and freephone number 0808 196 2016.
Spectrum.Life, a specialist provider of workplace wellbeing, has been appointed to provide our people with dedicated and 100% confidential support from experienced experts – your name and personal information will never be shared with gtd healthcare.
To set-up an account and access the service, please:
- Visit: https://app.spectrum.life/login
- Click on the ‘New here? Sign-up!’
- Insert your email address and use the code tN68DXRf
Employee Assistance Programme business cards have been circulated to all staff which contain useful information. If you have not yet received a business card, please speak to your line manager.
Wagestream
Wagestream is accessible via an app that gives you instant access up to 50% of your pay or up to £1000 – as soon as you’ve earned it, without needing to wait for payday.
It provides a range of tools to get you financially fit by supporting you to:
- track exactly how much you are earning throughout the month (this will be particularly beneficial for those of you who are working additional shifts, outside of your contracted hours);
- save straight from your salary;
- access impartial and tailored financial tips to help you manage your money better.
To download the Wagestream app, please click here.
Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme
The scheme is a new employee benefit that is similar to cycle-to-work, but for electric vehicles. You give-up some of your gross monthly pay for a new electric vehicle, and can save up to 40% on the monthly cost thanks to saving on National Insurance and Income Tax.
What's included?
- A brand new electric vehicle with no upfront costs.
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Insurance (terms and conditions apply, and subject to eligibility).
- Maintenance, road tax, MOT.
- Tyres.
- AA breakdown.
- A free home charger with standard installation plus 4,000 miles of home charging if you switch to Intelligent Octopus.
- Or, if you'll do most of your charging on the road, you’ll get 4,000 free miles with Octopus Electroverse.
Explore electric vehicles
If you’re interested in finding out more, you can explore the electric vehicles on offer via the quoting tool below. You will be asked to input your work email address and a six digit pin will be emailed to you, which will need to be used within 30 minutes. If you are asked for a code, please use GOT20684).
https://quote.octopusev.com/your-salary-sacrifice-scheme?invite_code=GOT20684
Once you insert some personal details including your *annual salary, the system will automatically generate your net monthly sacrifice (this is an estimate of the actual amount that would be deducted from your monthly salary as it does not take into account your pension contributions or other deductions such as student loans).
*To be eligible to participate you must:
- be a permanent employee paid via PAYE;
- be employed on a permanent contract and have completed your probation period;
- be able to afford the salary sacrifice, which means that your revised salary, after taking into account your salary sacrifice, exceeds the national living/minimum wage and the lower earnings limit for National Insurance contribution purposes – this is a legal requirement (the minimum salary for eligibility purposes is currently set at £31,212 by HMRC);
- not be planning on retiring or resigning during the term of the agreement.
Octopus is looking into a nearly new electric vehicle scheme and is hoping to offer this to employees on lower salaries in the near future.
Who to contact for help
If you have got any questions about the scheme or the cars available, please contact:
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Octopus electric vehicles specialists who will run through everything you need to know about electric driving, such as how to pick an electric vehicle that meets your needs. Also, you will place your order through the electric vehicles specialists. You can book a call with them here, call them on 020 3870 3892 or email sales@octopusev.com.
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Customer support who will look after everything once you’ve placed an order, updating you along the way with any important information, such as when to expect your electric vehicle. Also, they will help with any questions about charging or energy tariffs. Get in touch with them by either calling 020 3870 3892 or emailing customerservice@octopusev.com.
If you commit to leasing an electric vehicle, people services and the payroll team will support the process from an administrative perspective.
Wellbeing apps with NHS discount
NHS staff have been given free access to a number of wellbeing apps to support with their mental health and wellbeing, including:
- #StayAlive
- Bright Sky
- WorkLife Central
- Unmind
- Zero Suicide Alliance
For more information, please click here.
The organisations mileage and passenger rate
Following your suggestion cards, the council secured an increase in the mileage rate and implemented a passenger rate.
Mileage rate
The business mileage rate allows you to claim reimbursement for any trips you make for work purposes. The rate has increased to 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles.
Here are some examples of trips you can claim reimbursement for:
- travelling to a patient’s address for a home visit as a clinician;
- travelling between gtd healthcare workplaces;
- travelling to a meeting or attending training sessions such as basic life support.
Please note:
- you cannot claim reimbursement for trips such as commuting from home to work and back (this includes travelling to a university or college as part of your learning and development as this is classed as your base);
- if you travel from home to another workplace only the extra miles should be claimed. For example, if it is five miles from your home to your usual workplace, but you are travelling to a different workplace for a meeting, which is 20 miles from your home then you can only claim 15 miles.
All mileage requests need to be submitted in full including your line manager's signature to gtd.payrollservices@nhs.net.
Passenger rate
We have implemented a passenger allowance for employees who carry other employees in their own vehicles. This is to encourage car sharing when travelling to the same locations and to reduce our carbon footprint. The passenger rate is 5p per mile per passenger.
You can download the mileage claim form here or via the intranet.
If you have any queries regarding the mileage rates, please contact gtd.payrollservices@nhs.net who will be able to advise you further.
Claim your free Blue Light Card now!
Don’t forget to purchase or renew your Blue Light Card! The Board and executive team are offering to reimburse all gtd healthcare employed staff a Blue Light Card. The card gives you access to 15,000 discounts from large national retailers to local businesses across a variety of categories. If you purchase or need to renew your Blue Light Card, please claim the cost back on expenses, the form is available to download here. Please ensure to include the receipt with the completed expenses form when sending to payroll.
To view a step-by-step guide on how to register for your card, please click here.
Blue Light Ticket
A Blue Light Ticket provides you with the chance to enter ballots for tickets to events across the UK. Sign-up today to be in with a chance of winning free tickets from venues, sports teams, attractions, festivals, and concerts.
All you have to do is create an account using your personal and work email addresses.
Please note, this is a separate account to the Blue Lights Card.
Click here to sign-up!
Healthcare Service Discount
Get exclusive discounts, cashback and vouchers with Healthcare Service Discount. From holidays to care insurance, mobile phones to fashion brands the service offers deals from top names such as Apple and Jet2holidays.
Click here to view an A-Z of available discounts.
It's free to join - so click here to register today.
Family support
Follow the links below for more information on family support.
Holiday activities and food programme
Click here to check what benefits and financial support you can get for your family.
Household costs
Follow the links below for more information on household costs.
Disability cost of living payment
Pensioner cost of living payment
Get help with all or part of your rent
Support for additional housing cost
Get help with interest payments on mortgages or loans
Transport costs
Fuel duty for petrol and diesel has been cut by 5 pence per litre across the whole of the UK until March 2024. It saves £100 for the average car driver, £200 for the average van driver and £1,500 for the average haulier.
Follow the links below for more information on transport costs.
Help with your energy bills
Energy bill support scheme
The Energy Bills Support Scheme provides a £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households to help with their energy bills over winter 2022 to 2023.
Click here to find out more.
Follow the links below for more information on what support there is to help you with your energy bills.
Freeze your TV licence fee
The TV licence fee has been frozen at £159 until 2024. This means households will not see any change to the licence fee until 1 April, 2024.
To find out more information on free TV licence for those aged over 75, please click here.
Useful websites
Money Helper offers advice and guidance on:
- banking;
- budgeting;
- buying and running a car;
- credit purchases;
- managing money in uncertain times;
- dealing with debt and much more.
Money Super Market is a price comparison website including car and home insurance, mortgages, credit cards, loans and much more. At the moment the service is offering to match and more on certain deals and give you a £20 gift card.
Money Saving Expert, Martin Lewis, finds ways to cut your costs and offers a wide range of guidance from predicting Christmas deals to the best credit card deals.
Tips for saving energy
Did you know:
- Appliances use energy even when they are turned off but still plugged in, reduce energy waste by unplugging any un-used devices from the power socket.
- Having an extra freezer for parties or seasonal festivities can be a great help for storing extra food. However, if your freezer is not in use it can generate around 103 kWh per month, which adds up to approximately £15 a month. Defrost and unplug freezers when they are not in use to cut your energy costs.
- Lights can be one of the biggest energy wasters, they can account for as much as 15% of your electricity bill each year. If you sleep with hall lights or lamps on at night, consider turning these off before going to bed. Alternatively, apply a timer so you only have lights on for the time they are required.
- A full kettle of water could cost 2.5p to boil. This may not sound like much, however, added up, 10 boils of the kettle per day could amount to over £90 per year. Therefore, you should only put as much water as you need in your kettle; don't fill it right up.
- Is your fridge and freezer too cool? Fridges should be 5°C, freezers -18°C. If yours are lower, you're wasting energy.
- Your thermostat temperature might be too high. The World Health Organisation says 18°C is enough for healthy adults, slightly higher for the very young or old.
- Curtains block the sun, and the heat. So open them when there's daylight to let light and heat in, and close them at night to keep it in.
- Control which rooms you heat using your radiators, don't waste money on overheating empty spaces.
- Tumble dryers are one of the most expensive appliances, so minimise use, maximise load. You're typically paying up to £1 a load.
- Don't drain the hot water out of the bath too quick. You've paid to heat it, so let it sit for a bit. As it cools, the heat energy warms the house, rather than pulling the plug so it heats the drains.
How much electricity are you using?
Common household appliances and the average cost in pence for 10 minutes of use.
- Electric shower: 29p - 44p
- Immersion heater: 12.5p
- Kettle: 12.5p
- Tumble Dryer: 8p - 12.5p
- Electric fire: 8p - 12.5p
- Oven: 8p - 9p
- Hairdryer: 8p
- Washing machine: 5p - 12.5p
- Dishwasher: 4.5p - 6p
- Grill/hob: 4p - 8.5p
- Iron: 4p - 4.5p
- Electric drill: 3.7p - 4p
- Toaster: 3.3p - 6.2p
- Microwave: 2.5p - 6.2p
- Vacuum cleaner: 2p - 5p
- Dehumidifier: 1.2p - 2.8p
- Plasma TV: 1.2p - 1.8p
- Heating blanket: 0.5p - 0.8p
- LCD TV: 0.5p - 0.8p
- Desktop computer: 0.3p - 0.8p
- Games console: 0.2p - 0.8p
Resturants and cafes
Restaurants
- Frankie & Benny's: 20% off NHS discount
- Frankie & Benny's: Free birthday main meal
- Nando's: 20% off for NHS on orders up to £20
- Pizza Hut: 25% with Blue Light Card
- Pizza Hut: £9 unlimited lunch buffet
Fast food
- Burger King: Free cheeseburger or fries when you sign up for the app
- Domino's: 35% off £25 with a student discount
- Greggs: Free sweet treat on your birthday via the rewards app
- Krispy Kreme: Sign up for its newsletter for a free doughnut
- McDonald's deals: 20% off for NHS staff
Cafes
Have you downloaded these money saving apps?
Jam Doughnut: A cashback site that means you earn money back when you shop.
Shoppix: Take a photo of your receipts or complete a survey to collect tokens and view all of your receipts in one handy place. Exchange your tokens to claim rewards from your favourite retailers.
Too good to go: Customers can buy and collect magic bags of food at a great price directly from businesses such as Starbucks, Morrisons and much more.
Snoop: Money management and budgeting app, helping you track your spending, cut your bills and control your finances. Everything you need to beat cost of living increases.
Find a warm welcome space
The warm welcome campaign believes everyone should have a warm and welcoming space to go to during winter. Its network of community organisations, churches, libraries and businesses across the UK have opened their doors to provide exactly that. There are over 3000 registered organisations that have opened or are opening up free, warm, welcoming spaces for the public over the winter period across the UK.
The campaign is a seasonal campaign and will re-open when the clocks go back in October. Please click here for more information or to find a space near you.
Women's campaigns
Cost of living advice line
Manchester City Council has set up a new free advice phone line to answer your questions and to help check you are getting all you are entitled to.
Contact number: 0800 023 2692
Website: www.manchester.gov.uk/info/10050/help_with_the_cost_of_living_crisis/8451/cost_of_living_advice_line
Open Monday to Friday from 9am to 4.30pm.
Free internet and SIM cards
Any Manchester resident struggling to pay for internet access can now pick up a free SIM card at their nearest library.
The free SIM cards come with 20GB of free data per month, including unlimited calls and texts for six months.
All you have to do is pop into your local library and ask. To find one near you, please click here.
Further information is available here.
Holidays, activities and fun days out
2-FOR-1 days out
Asda rewards are offering 2‑for‑1 tickets on hundreds of exciting nationwide activities, with participating snack packs. For more information please click here.
TUI Holidays for Heroes
TUI are offering an extra £100 off on top of any other savings for new holiday bookings over £1200 in value. Click here to browse the full range of holidays.
Aldi
Aldi are offering free sports session's when you spend £30 in store. If you have received a voucher, please view Aldi's website to redeem a free sports session of your choice.
For inspiration on how to entertain the kids at home, see Aldi's activities for kids. The page details a range of activities you can do at home with children including cooking, crafts, games, quizzes and quality family time. The page is updated often, so keep popping back to find some more ideas!
