Legal and General has added free face-to-face counselling sessions to its group income protection (GIP) product.
Employees covered by a Legal and General GIP policy can have up to five face-to-face counselling sessions if needed.
The sessions are offered as part of Legal and General’s enhanced employee assistance programme (EAP), which is provided by global EAP provider PPC Worldwide.
Through the enhanced service:
- Employees will be offered face-to-face counselling, where appropriate, to support them in dealing with a wide range of work and personal life-related issues.
- Employees will generally be able to see someone within a 30-mile radius of their home or place of work.
- The sessions will be provided by PPC Worldwide, which has more than 1,000 counsellors across the UK.
Vanessa Sallows, benefits and medical underwriting director at Legal and General Group Protection (pictured), said: “Face-to-face counselling complements our early intervention and rehabilitation support, available to all our group income protection [users].
“These sessions can help prevent employee absence by providing support while they are still at work.”
Jim Islam, managing director at Legal and General Group Protection, added: “By adding up to five free face-to-face counselling sessions, our GIP [users] will get a service that will provide benefits to both employer and employee.
“Sometimes [telephone] counselling is simply not enough and so we are very pleased to be able to offer these sessions to those that need them.”