Asda allows employees flexible access to pay

Supermarket chain Asda has allowed its employees to keep track of their earnings in real-time and access their pay flexibly to cope with the cost-of-living pressures.

It has tied up with the financial wellbeing app Wagestream to enable its 140,000 workers to get paid up to 50 per cent of their earned contracted pay when they choose.

Experts say salary advance schemes can help people avoid harmful forms of borrowing like high-cost credit.

The app, built by social impact experts, has a rainy-day pot feature which encourages its users to save money and helps them manage their finances more effectively.

Asda, co-owned by Blackburn’s billionaire Issa brothers, has recently announced its £141-million plan to increase hourly pay for retail colleagues by 10 per cent this year, with rates rising to £11.00 in April and £11.11 in July.

The Leeds-based retailer’s chief people and corporate affairs officer Hayley Tatum said the firm felt the worker’s need for financial help which became all the more important because of the elevated levels of inflation.

Support and guidance through the Wagestream app could become vital in giving Asda employees “financial peace of mind as well as their mental wellbeing,” Tatum said.

Asda is the latest to join the growing number of employers adopting Wagestream and the list includes NHS trusts, Next, Halfords, Burger King, Pizza Express and Travis Perkins.

Created with investment from the Fair By Design campaign, the app is now used by some 500 employers, up from 300 in August last year.

Wagestream’s head of impact and inclusion, Emily Trant said Asda will support financial well-being with a range of tools and services provided by the smartphone app.

Asda’s tie-up with Wagestream comes at a time when the UK’s inflation accelerated to 10.4 per cent. The deepened cost-of-living crisis has eroded household savings and prompted workers across sectors in the country to resort to industrial action.