Benefits company attracts £326m

The value of receipts for holiday pay, EasyBuild pension premiums, and accident and death cover attracted by the B&CE benefits company soared by 16% last year to a total of nearly £326m.
In the year 2003/04, holiday pay reimbursements under the Template scheme increased by 16% to £276m, according to the latest B&CE annual report.
The report lists group total assets up by a third to nearly £300m.
B&CE deputy chief executive John Jory said: "The rise in income is due to the increased number of operatives participating with a knock-on effect on receipts for all parts of the benefits package. At the turn of the year, the number of operatives in the Template holiday scheme stood at the highest level for 10 years and the number remains consistently over 200,000."
Jory said the pension scheme fund has risen to £150m since its inception in 2001 and now has 300,000 members.
There has been a 50% increase in EasyBuild membership since the introduction of an automatic enrolment facility last year.
"We are making good progress with EasyBuild," he added. "The biggest issue is that there are still too few workers who are making their own matching contributions. We are working hard with all parties to persuade more to do so."