Survey reveals the rising cost of food, gas and housing are top concerns for American workers

As a result, 70% of employed individuals are interested in receiving support to help optimize their benefit dollars during open enrollment

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), a leading health, wealth and investment company, announced today findings from a new consumer survey revealing that inflationary pressures have American employees increasingly focused on their employer-provided benefits to help optimize their workplace benefits and savings needs.

Specifically, due to inflation, Voya’s survey found that the majority of employed individuals (70%) agree they plan to spend more time reviewing their benefit selections during open enrollment to help make the most of their benefit dollars.¹ However, to help employees make more informed benefit decisions for their unique personal circumstances, most will likely need some help. Interestingly, the new survey also revealed that 7 in 10 employed Americans (70%) are interested in receiving support to help optimize their benefits dollars across retirement savings, health-care insurance, health savings accounts (HSAs) and voluntary benefits like critical illness, hospital indemnity, disability income or accident insurance.¹

“With inflation at record levels not experienced in decades, the financial stress caused by increasing prices is taking a toll on American workers. Voya’s new survey reveals that nearly three-quarters of Americans (74%) agree that inflation has made them more stressed about their personal financial situation, which is up from 66% in March of this year,¹” explained Rob Grubka, CEO of Health Solutions, Voya Financial. “If we look at lessons learned from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s not surprising that American workers are once again turning to a trusted source for guidance and support — their employers. And, with the fall open enrollment season approaching for millions of Americans, it’s encouraging to see that workers intend to carve out more time to focus on reviewing all the workplace benefits offered by their employers to help optimize every hard-earned dollar.”

The challenge for many individuals in the current landscape is understanding how to balance their short-term needs with their long-term financial goals. For example, when asked what concerned them the most, almost 9 in 10 surveyed Americans (88%) said it was the various impacts of inflation — such as the rising cost of food and groceries (38%), rising gas prices (35%) and the rising cost of housing (15%). Interestingly, the rising cost of health care ranked fourth on this list of top concerns (9%), followed by the rising cost of streaming and TV services (3%).¹

“In our experience, typically when you ask workers what concerns them most when it comes to their health and wealth needs, the rising cost of health care would top the list. While still important, Voya’s latest survey highlights the impact of daily pressures and competing financial priorities that many are trying to navigate in today’s high-inflation environment,” said Andrew Frend, SVP of Strategy and Product, Voya Health Solutions. “At Voya, we recognize that making informed decisions about your workplace benefits and savings needs can leave many employees feeling unsure as to whether they’re making the right choices. Now, add record inflation to the equation, and it’s clear that Americans need help.”

“For employers and benefits providers, this presents a tremendous opportunity to work together to help simplify and personalize the annual enrollment experience so employees can act with confidence in how they allocate their next dollar,” explained Frend. “In addition to year-round education and communications efforts, innovative solutions and technology can be a game-changer. For example, earlier this year, Voya launched myHealth&Wealth — an integrated digital guidance tool that helps employees optimize their household spending across health insurance benefits, emergency savings and saving for retirement. This technology-enabled, interactive experience helps employees think about their benefits contributions and savings as a total ‘benefits budget,’ while providing a personalized action plan. Since Voya’s national launch in the spring, feedback from employer clients on myHealth&Wealth has been extremely positive, and Voya has plans to continue enhancing our solutions and capabilities to help individuals optimize their decision-making — which, ultimately, can help lead to improved outcomes.”

In addition to myHealth&Wealth, Voya has launched several innovative solutions to help Americans holistically plan for their health and wealth needs, with more integrated experiences scheduled to launch this year. These resources include Voya’s: Emergency Savings fund solutions; budget calculator; Spanish-language experience; and the Voya Learn digital educational platform, which offers live and on-demand sessions on a variety of topics, including saving for emergencies, investing concepts and market volatility, retirement income planning, debt management and more.

As an industry leader focused on the delivery of health, wealth and investment solutions to and through the workplace, Voya Financial is committed to delivering on its mission to make a secure financial future possible for all Americans — one person, one family, one institution at a time.

1) Based on the results of a Voya Financial survey conducted June 17-21, 2022, on the Ipsos eNation omnibus online platform among 1,005 adults, featuring 495 working Americans aged 18+ in the U.S.

About Voya Financial^®

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), is a leading health, wealth and investment company that provides products, solutions and technologies that enable a better financial future for its clients, customers and society. Serving the needs of 14.3 million individual, workplace and institutional clients, Voya has approximately 6,000 employees and had $644 billion in total assets under management and administration as of June 30, 2022. Certified as a “Great Place to Work” by the Great Place to Work^® Institute, Voya is purpose-driven and is equally committed to conducting business in a way that is socially, environmentally, economically and ethically responsible. Voya has earned recognition as: one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies^® by the Ethisphere Institute; a member of the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index; and a “Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion” on the Disability Equality Index. For more information, visit voya.com. Follow Voya Financial on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @Voya.

Voya Financial and its affiliated companies (collectively, “Voya”) is making available to you the myHealth&Wealth tool offered by SAVVI Financial LLC. (“SAVVI”). Voya has a financial ownership interest in and business relationships with SAVVI that create an incentive for Voya to promote SAVVI’s products and services and for SAVVI to promote Voya’s products and services. Please access and read SAVVI’s Firm Brochure which is available at this link: https://www.savvifi.com/legal/form-adv. It contains general information about SAVVI’s business, including conflicts of interest.

About Ipsos

Ipsos is the world’s third largest market research company, present in 90 markets and employing more than 18,000 people. Our passionately curious research professionals, analysts and scientists have built unique multi-specialist capabilities that provide true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers or employees. We serve more than 5000 clients across the world with 75 business solutions. Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos is listed on the Euronext Paris since July 1st, 1999. The company is part of the SBF 120 and the Mid-60 index and is eligible for the Deferred Settlement Service (SRD). ISIN code FR0000073298, Reuters ISOS.PA, Bloomberg IPS:FP www.ipsos.com.

Ipsos is a separate entity and not a corporate affiliate of Voya Financial^®.

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