Leading employee benefits provider P&MM has teamed up with CPP Group Plc, to launch a new identity protection programme for the employee benefits market. Organisations that sign up to a P&MM Lifestyle Solution will now be able to offer their staff a comprehensive identity protection service at a significantly reduced cost.
Richard Davies, head of Employee Benefits at P&MM, commented: “Increased online shopping, computer viruses, phishing scams, frequent data losses, opportunists, carelessness with personal information or intercepted mail have all contributed to 237 per cent rise in account takeover fraud in the last two years. In 2009 there were 85,000 recorded victims of impersonation and 24,000 victims of account hijacking in the UK – an overall increase of 31 per cent.
“The consequences of identity fraud can be serious and prolonged with a ruined credit rating, county court judgements and bailiffs chasing overdue payments. Highly stressful, it may take a victim over 200 hours of work to resolve fraud where a ‘total hijack’ has occurred, perhaps involving 20 to 30 different organisations. Consequentially, we have identified CPP’s latest identity protection product as an ideal solution for the employee benefits market allowing employers to offer their staff assistance in protecting personal information.”
The package includes specialist identity protection software for home computer use, with anti-virus, online data patrol to ensure that personal information is not made available to unsecure websites and a secure browser toolbar for ongoing internet protection.
Users will have unlimited access to their personal credit reports detailing where account data has been processed or stored electronically by organisations such as banks, online retailers or mail order companies. This includes credit ratings, credit limits, credit history, loan agreements and other data that are used by companies to make credit checks. With this information, users will discover if they have ever fallen victim to identity fraud and will be alerted of any significant changes in their credit status.
Resolving identity fraud can be an expensive and time-consuming business. The programme includes a recovery process and insurance cover of up to £60,000 to assist in restoring an identity. Additionally, £1,500 insurance is available to cover day-to-day expenses while this is taking place.
In the event of identity theft, a dedicated fraud resolution expert from CPP will be available to users to offer advice, guidance and support in resolving the fraud. In order to make this process as hassle-free as possible, and as an important precaution, a secure record of important documents can be kept and passports and driving licences registered so that they can be restored again quickly. The programme also offers assistance in registering victims to the National Fraud Database in order to help prevent any recurrences.
Richard Davies continued: “This is a very comprehensive offering that, collectively, is worth in the region of £200.00. With our new employee benefits offering, however, staff will be able to purchase the full package through their employer for a significantly discounted £69.99.”
He finished: “Being an employer is about more than just paying staff wages these days and employee welfare is an important aspect when putting together support services and benefits solutions. This new product offers a useful means for organisations to protect their staff from the consequences of this insidious, debilitating and growing crime.”
