Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether they will require their department and agencies to offer payroll deductions to all employees to enable them to join a credit union.

The Department’s financial wellbeing offer for its workforce includes access to a variety of advances including rental deposits and season ticket loans, as well as debt/budgeting advice and support through its Employee Assistance Programme.

The Department does not offer credit union membership via payroll deductions and has no current plans to introduce such arrangements. Of our executive agencies, only the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has a general payroll deduction facility which could be used for such a purpose and the UKHSA includes details on its Financial Wellbeing page as to where employees can find further information on credit unions.