Every year, UK employers pour serious money into benefits!
Insurance, discount schemes, wellness apps, gym access – an impressive-looking menu of benefits.
Every year, a huge chunk of that money quietly evaporates, like a magic trick nobody asked to see. Nobody claims it, nobody uses it, and the investment fails to deliver the impact it was meant to.
Imagine handing every employee a stack of brilliant, hand-picked perks, wrapped up with a bow, basically shouting: “We thought about you specifically.” Now imagine half of them just shrug and never touch it.
That’s not hypothetical, sadly. That’s the UK, right now, according to our Great Employee Benefits Study 2026. And it’s not a small gap, either. It’s the biggest one anywhere in Europe.
Here’s the number that should make you look twice.
49% of UK employees didn’t use all their available benefits last year. That’s the highest figure in Europe.
The European average is 35%. Finland, meanwhile, sees 70% of employees using all their available benefits. So no, this isn’t just a case of “benefits are hard everywhere.” The UK has a particularly big utilization problem.
And it’s not because employers are not spending money. Budgets are decent, and 75% of employers plan to spend even more in 2027. The money is there. The challenge is making sure it’s spent on benefits that employees actually value and use.
So, where’s it all going wrong?
Employees aren’t skipping their benefits to be difficult. We asked them why, and one answer stood out above the rest.
54% say the top reason they skip their benefits is that they simply don’t match their interests.
Not “forgot.” Not “didn’t know.” They just don’t see enough value in what’s available to them.
Picture paying for a discount scheme nobody asked for, or a generic wellness app that loses its appeal after week one. That’s investment that isn’t working as hard as it could.
The other reasons are still significant. 38% say they didn’t have time. 35% say the value doesn’t stretch far enough. And 30% say their preferred provider won’t even take the benefit.
Awareness, though, is barely an issue. Only 29% say they simply didn’t know the benefit existed. People know what’s on the table. The bigger question is whether they actually want what’s on it.
The tech isn’t helping either
Here’s another stat that should make anyone holding a benefits budget wince.
Just 39% of UK employers say their current benefits technology actually works well.
Plenty have some kind of tech in place – 67% say they do. But for many, that “tech” is a bolted-on HR module, rather than a platform that gives them a clear view of what employees are actually using and valuing.
Employers know data matters, too. 83% say usage reporting is very important, or even critical, for decision-making. Yet without the right technology, getting that visibility isn't always straightforward.
Some benefits actually get this right
Here’s the good news. It’s not that employees are impossible to please. When a benefit is relevant and accessible, the numbers look very different.
Take fitness benefits. 75% of UK employees say they matter when choosing an employer.
And 71% of employees with access to a fitness benefit actually used it in the past year.
Of those users, 88% say they value it greatly, and 89% say it genuinely improves their wellbeing.
That’s what happens when a benefit matches a genuine employee need: strong uptake and real value for the people using it.
The fix for the other 49% isn’t simply adding more benefits to an already crowded list. It’s giving people benefits that are relevant to them – and using real utilisation data to understand what’s working and what isn’t.
The Epassi part
That’s the gap Epassi was built to help close.
Instead of one generic perk for everyone, Epassi gives employees real choice across the UK’s largest health and fitness network.
Flexible gym access, physiotherapy, preventative health assessments, mental health support – employees can choose what works for them.
And because it all lives on one platform, employers can see what’s being used and get a clearer picture of where their benefits investment is delivering value.
If your budget is quietly leaking the way the Great Employee Benefits Study 2026 data suggests, it might be time for benefits people actually want to use.
Find out how Epassi can help you give employees more choice – and get more from your benefits investment – at epassi.co.uk.
Because a benefit nobody uses isn’t really a benefit. It’s just an expensive rumour with a login page.
Book a call with our team to find out how benefits your employees actually want to use can work harder for your business.
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