Cornwall Council

How Cornwall Council turned financial wellbeing into one of its smartest financial decisions.

Cornwall Council has generated £450,000 in National Insurance savings, and that number is still growing. At the same time, hundreds of employees are building stronger retirement outcomes, many for the first time.

This wasn’t a cost-cutting exercise. It was the result of treating financial wellbeing as a real benefit, not a tick-box.

In 2023, the Council partnered with My Money Matters to bring financial education, personalised support and a fully supported Shared Cost AVC benefit to its 5,656 LGPS employees.

When employees save smarter, the employer saves too. That's not a side effect, it's the point.

Why it worked

Shared Cost AVCs are simple in principle: Employees contribute before tax and National Insurance, so more of their money goes into their pension. Employers pay less National Insurance as a result. The more people who use it, the more both sides benefit.

But Cornwall understood something most employers miss: the benefit only works if people actually use it.

So they focused just as much on engagement as they did on the scheme itself. My Money Matters supported this with:

• Personalised financial health checks
• Live webinars and on-demand content
• 1:1 coaching sessions

Communications were also built specifically for Cornwall's workforce like digital posters, intranet posts, newsletters, making sure the message reached people in a way that felt relevant, not generic.

Results and Impact

 

 

More than 2,400 employees now have access to financial tools and education many had never had before.

Over 600 are actively improving their retirement outcomes.

And the Council has already saved nearly half a million pounds, with savings continuing to accelerate as participation grows.

What's next

Cornwall Council isn't stopping at retirement savings. They're now building on the partnership to introduce broader financial education, tools and resources designed to help employees achieve lasting financial security at every stage of their lives, not just at retirement.

That's the real ambition: not a one-off benefit, but a genuine, long-term shift in the financial confidence and resilience of an entire workforce.

What every council should take from this

Your employees already have access to one of the most tax-efficient ways to save. Most of them don't know that and most of them aren't using it. Every month that passes is a month of NI savings the Council isn't seeing, and a month of retirement security an employee isn't building.

The question isn't whether a Shared Cost AVC partnership delivers value. Cornwall have already answered that. The question is how long you can afford to wait.