Aviva is partnering with digital healthcare provider HealthHero to provide an employee assistance programme (EAP) to clients with any Aviva group protection policy.
The new EAP will be available from 1st January 2026 to group life, critical illness and group income protection clients and all of their employees, whether insured or not, after previously being limited to group income protection scheme members. This means that around 2.8 million employees will have access to the service.
Employees will have access to a 24/7 emotional and practical support helpline every day of the year, providing in-the-moment support for life’s challenges. Where clinically required, an additional planned structured counselling session is available. Further onward mental health support for mild to moderate symptoms is available for insured members through the services within the Aviva DigiCare+ Workplace app.
The EAP service also provides self-serve access to online resources including webinars, support articles, videos and wellbeing assessments.
The announcement follows a review of Aviva’s wellbeing services for group protection clients, with the following additional changes:
• As the EAP services are now available to all customers and encapsulate a wide range of mental health support, there will no longer be separate access to the stress and bereavement helplines. Stress and bereavement support will also be accessible to insured employees via Aviva DigiCare+ Workplace. This removal of duplicate support makes service choice easier for employees.
• The frequency of the Health Check on the Aviva DigiCare+ Workplace app is being adjusted to better align with employee usage of the service. From 29th January 2026 this will move from being available to order annually to once every two years.
Jason Ellis, director of group protection distribution at Aviva, said: “We’re delighted to be able to expand the reach of our new Employee Assistance Programme, offering mental health support to many more UK employees through 24/7 helplines.
“We’re also pleased to be able to continue offering our comprehensive and widely used finger-prick blood Health Check at no additional cost to clients through the Aviva DigiCare+ Workplace app. This now moves to every two years in line with how employees use the detection service to monitor their wellbeing.
“These changes are part of our wider ambition and future plans to streamline and connect our wellbeing services, and to deliver valued and impactful added value benefits to employers and their employees.”
Brandon Collins, commercial director at HealthHero, added: “This new partnership with Aviva marks a significant step forward in offering service innovations to their corporate customers, whilst also delivering our gold-standard clinical expertise in this ever-evolving healthcare market.
“We have a shared commitment to simplifying healthcare and improving lives and by combining Aviva’s trusted brand with HealthHero’s clinical excellence, the collaboration aims to deliver seamless, innovative healthcare experiences for corporate customers and their employees across the UK.”
