A meal voucher or luncheon voucher is a

voucher A voucher is a bond of the redeemable transaction type which is worth a certain monetary value and which may be spent only for specific reasons or on specific goods. Examples include housing, travel, and food vouchers. The term voucher is also a ...

for a meal given to employees as an

employee benefit Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...

, allowing them to eat at outside restaurants, typically for lunch. In many countries, meal vouchers have had favorable tax treatment. Vouchers are typically in the form of paper tickets but are gradually being replaced by electronic vouchers in the form of a special payment card.

United Kingdom

Mac's Caff door, luncheon voucher sticker, London 1982

A Luncheon Voucher (LV) was a paper ticket (

) used by some employees in the United Kingdom to pay for meals in private

restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

s. It allowed companies to subsidise midday meals (

lunch Lunch is a meal eaten around the middle of the day. It is commonly the second meal of the day, after breakfast, and varies in size by culture and region. Etymology According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED''), the etymology ...

eons) for their employees without having to run their own canteens. The scheme dates to 1946, when

food rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...

was still in force following the end of the war. The British government granted an extra-statutory tax concession, believing that this would help citizens afford healthy meals. Under the concession, Luncheon Vouchers were free of

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

and

national insurance contributions National Insurance (NI) is a fundamental component of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It acts as a form of social security, since payment of NI contributions establishes entitlement to certain state benefits for workers and their famil ...

up to the value of 3

shillings The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or ...

(15

pence A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is th ...

) a day. The initial level of 2s. 3d. (11.25p, £5.01 in 2021) was increased in 1948 to level of 3/- (15p, £5.80 in 2021), but was not later adjusted for inflation. The concession was abolished as redundant, 15p per day having become a trivial amount, from 6 April 2013. In the early days, a company that wanted to subsidise their staff lunches, but not run a canteen, had to have vouchers printed and make arrangements with one or more local restaurants to accept them. In addition, it would have to administer the scheme (for instance by checking and counting the vouchers returned from the restaurants prior to settling their account). In 1954, a businessman, John Hack, realised that a single standardised voucher acceptable across the UK would be more logical and efficient. He subsequently started the Luncheon Vouchers Company in 1955 to implement the nationwide Luncheon Voucher scheme. In 1956, nine large catering companies purchased the company, with Hack staying on as managing director. The company was bought by

Accor Accor S.A. is a French multinational hospitality company that owns, manages and franchises hotels, resorts and vacation properties. It is the largest hospitality company in Europe, and the sixth largest hospitality company worldwide. Accor op ...

in 1982. Restaurants that accept the vouchers display an "LV" logo in their windows. The vouchers were used as a form of payment in Cynthia Payne's

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

during the 1970s.

Belgium

Meal vouchers were introduced in Belgium in 1965. Electronic meal vouchers were introduced in 2011 and the old paper meal voucher system was phased out on January 1, 2016.

France

Meal vouchers were introduced to France in 1962 by

Jacques Borel Jacques Borel (17 December 1925 in Paris – 25 September 2002) was a French author best known for his 1965 novel ''L'Adoration'' (translated into English as ''The Bond''), which won the Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Gonc ...

, who was inspired by Luncheon Vouchers; he called them Ticket Restaurant. Starting in 1976, Ticket Restaurant expanded outside France, and became part of Accor in 1983.

Accor and Edenred

By 1983, Accor owned both the British Luncheon Vouchers and the French Ticket Restaurant. Accor spun off the voucher business in 1998 as Accor Services, which became

Edenred Edenred, formerly known as Accor Services, is an international company that specialises in specific-purpose payment solutions for companies, employees and merchants. Edenred is the inventor of Ticket Restaurant, created in 1962. The company prov ...

in 2010.50 ans d'innovation
", Ticket Restaurant web site

References

{{Reflist Payment systems Employee benefits