02 August 2012
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The UK should follow America and use tax breaks as a tool to encourage employers to provide staff with financial education, a US government adviser suggests.
Financial Education and Literacy Advisers CEO Blake Allison said the use of tax incentives to encourage businesses to provide financial education to their staff had "interesting" implications.
"Ultimately it is important for society that people are financially secure - otherwise they depend on social services," he said.
"A tax incentive is one way to nip financial problems in the bud. There's definitely a role for policy."
Allison, who was speaking at a Friends Life auto-enrolment event in London, referred to the US example, citing the case of auto-enrolment: "There can be tax benefits for hitting certain participating levels."
Under US legislation, high levels of participation in company pension schemes help employers to pass mandatory non-discrimination tests and thus keep tax benefits for executives as well as lower-paid workers.
