Benefits
Flexible benefits
In return for your hard work and commitment you’ll receive our innovative “Your Choice” benefits package. This gives you the opportunity to choose those benefits that best suit your needs. It also allows you to exchange some of your salary for extra benefits.
These flexible benefits:
- provide you with a real opportunity to maximise your salary
- give you access to a wide range of savings on everyday purchases
- include special offers and discounts on leisure activities and holidays
To give you an idea, the main benefits we currently offer are:
- Childcare vouchers – available to all employees: providing for the tax and NI free purchase of up to £220 of vouchers every four weeks
- Cycle to Work – available to employees who have completed 6 months service. Colleagues are able to hire a bike (and any associated equipment) up to the value of £1,000 for travel to work with savings on tax and NI
- Lifestyle Benefits – a range of discounts and offers available to all employees throughout the year
Other Benefits
We’re always looking to enhance the benefits we provide to colleagues. If your role is safety critical, or you routinely work with VDUs, you’ll have access to our free eye test voucher scheme.
Pension
All our employees are invited to join the First Great Western section of the Railways Pension Scheme (RPS). RPS is a first class occupational scheme, we recently introduced our RPS Saver scheme to make it even better value for employees. The Railways Pension Scheme is the defined benefit (also known as "final salary") pension arrangement for rail industry employees.
Most sections of the scheme will let you transfer in benefits from a previous pension arrangement, registered by HM Revenue & Customs.
Membership of the RPS Saver pension scheme also provides employees with the reassurance of life assurance that provides a benefit of four times salary on death in service.
Travel
In addition to free duty travel on First Great Western Services, all colleagues receive passes to provide free leisure travel for themselves, their spouse or partner, and dependants (subject to requirements). As members of the Rail Staff Travel scheme, you’ll benefit from free or discounted international travel in many countries including mainland Europe (after one year’s service).
You’ll also able to benefit from being part of First Group, the UK’s largest public transport provider. You’ll receive a pass to give access to a number of free days’ travel on any First Group rail service. This is supplemented by access to First Group’s Colleagues, Family & Friends Travel Offer. This can be used to purchase FirstWeek bus travel passes which provide special reduced-price travel anywhere in the First UK local bus network (except London).
Share Schemes
A key part of our benefits package is First Group’s highly successful employee share scheme offering savings and investment opportunities for our employees through buying shares in The FirstGroup plc.
- Our Save As You Earn (SAYE) scheme enables employees to make regular risk-free savings to a 'sharesave' account. After three years a guaranteed, tax-free bonus is added and there is the option to use the savings to buy discounted FirstGroup plc shares.
- Our Buy As You Earn (BAYE) scheme offers employees the opportunity to buy FirstGroup plc shares from their gross pay, saving income tax and National Insurance. The Company also contributes the equivalent number of shares without charge.
We keep colleagues informed of monthly BAYE purchases and movements in our share price via workplace posters and our intranet.