The head of Zurich Life and Investments, Tim Bailey has added his support to efforts to raise funds to tackle homelessness and will participate in this year’s Vinnies CEO Sleepout.
According to Bailey, financial difficulties are one of the leading causes of homelessness with more than 116,000 people classified as homeless at the time of the last census.
He added that a number of groups were working to address the issue of homelessness and Zurich had decided to support Vinnies which was seeking to raise funds to provide meals, shelter and support programs to homeless people.
“For more than a decade this event has been helping put a roof over the heads of society’s most vulnerable people, raising more than $42 million to fund homelessness services across Australia,” Bailey said.
“I see many parallels between the services Vinnies and others like them provide and the role life insurance plays in protecting people’s emotional, physical and financial wellbeing. And that’s why I am taking the opportunity to do the Sleepout this year,” he said.
Bailey asked for the life insurance sector to add its support, noting the $5.6 million raised in 2017 funded 1.5 million meals, 700,000 beds and 2 million individual support programs, with this year’s target set at $6.4 million.
“I see many parallels between the services Vinnies…provide and the role life insurance plays in protecting people’s…wellbeing…”
“As I write they are more than halfway to achieving that goal. Which means your help is needed. Increasing awareness of the homelessness issue is vital if we are to make any progress towards solving it,” Bailey said.
He added that the ‘social purpose’ of life insurance was part of a wider ecosystem which included healthcare and social security, and efforts to secure the well-being of people ran parallel to those of social services providers like Vinnies
Bailey said that during the current period of intense scrutiny on the financial services sector “…it is easy to lose sight of the inherent social purpose underlying the myriad of products and services it provides”.
“This is especially true of life insurance, where the $10 billion life insurers pay in claims each year isn’t widely appreciated; except perhaps by the tens of thousands of individuals, families and small businesses who are the recipients of these benefits,” he said.
Bailey added that life insurance beneficiaries understood the role it played in keeping a roof over their heads, and this provided a mental health benefit as well which tied life insurance into broader ecosystem which provided physical, financial and emotional well-being across the community.
The Vinnies CEO Sleepout will take place on 21 June 2018 and donations can be made at: www.ceosleepout.org.au
