Do you spend time agonising over budgets? Are you wondering whether to provide dedicated partner support, or whether to allocate your expat partners an allowance which they can spend at their own discretion? Are you considering paying out allowances as a lump sum to avoid time-consuming application processing and declaration procedures? If so, you’re not alone.
‘Buy off’ partner support
We see many companies still trying to ‘buy off’ partner support with a cash allowance, often leaving it up to partners as to how they want to spend that budget – what’s popularly referred to as ‘Gucci money’. What we’ve noticed is that, rather than seeing a cash allowance as partner support, partners often gratefully see it as additional income, putting it towards a fun holiday, a nice new couch or, as you might suspect, a designer handbag.
Joint survey
While taking a weekend getaway, lounging on a designer sofa or being well-dressed undoubtedly add to a person’s sense of well-being, whether these things structurally contribute to an expat partner’s mobility and quality of life is something that is open to question. The feedback we receive from partners is clear on this point: money alone doesn’t bring happiness. That’s why Global Connection and the RES Forum are planning to carry out a joint survey in June aimed at gaining more insight into cash allowance support.
Read about the findings of our Partner support effectiveness survey
