- \n
- …At the end of three months in a row, your injury or illness means means that you\u2019re incapable of ever working in any job that you are suited to based on your previous education, training or experience, or any job that you may reasonably become suited to with further education, training or experience. This will be decided by considering things such as:<\/em>\n
- \n
- What re-skilling, training or voluntary work you have done already,<\/em><\/li>\n
- Any retraining or reskilling you reasonably could be expected to do, and<\/em><\/li>\n
- Any rehabilitation you have done already or any rehabilitation you reasonably could be expected to do.\u2019<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The new definition will apply to new and existing members of AustralianSuper.\u00a0Claims in progress on 1 November 2014 will continue to be assessed under the existing arrangements. Members currently receiving benefits will not be impacted. Only claims arising after 1 November 2014 will be assessed under the new arrangements.<\/p>\n
…the best outcome for members who suffer a disability is for them to get back into the workforce<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
AustralianSuper\u2019s Product Manager, Insurance, Richard Weatherhead<\/strong>, said the changes had been designed to ensure the long-term sustainability of the fund\u2019s insurance offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cTPD is designed to provide a benefit if a member is permanently incapable of working. One of the fund\u2019s fundamental beliefs is that the best outcome for members who suffer a disability is for them to get back into the workforce. So the approach taken by AustralianSuper is, wherever possible, to work with the member to seek their rehabilitation back into the workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat said, retraining or rehabilitation is not obligatory in order to be eligible for a TPD benefit. If a member chooses not to undertake retraining or rehabilitation, then their claim will still be considered on its merits, although their potential for retraining\/rehabilitation will be taken into account when assessing the claims. Unfortunately, in many cases, the disabilities involved will make retraining and rehabilitation impossible, and in these cases, the new provisions will have no bearing on the ultimate claim decision,\u201d Mr Weatherhead said.<\/p>\n
He also noted that AustralianSuper provides default income protection cover, which replaces 85% of income while the member is temporarily disabled. This means the member gets financial support immediately after the waiting period, but in the more severe cases, where they are incapable of working again, they will receive a TPD lump sum.<\/p>\n
Under new legislation, which took effect from 1 July 2014, superannuation funds can no longer offer \u2018own occupation\u2019 TPD. Changes also apply to the types of additional benefits and features that are available for income protection polices held inside super (see: Insurance in Super Still Viable Option<\/a>). AustralianSuper said it expected other funds and their insurers would be making, or had already made, similar changes to their insurance definitions to align with this legislation.<\/p>\n
![\"xLife](\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2014\/11\/Russel-Cain.jpg\")
<\/a>xLife CEO, Russell Cain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n However, Russell Cain<\/strong>, CEO of life insurance comparison service, xLife.com.au<\/a>, said the new wording was \u201cconcerning\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been involved in the industry for almost 10 years and I have never seen a total and permanent disablement definition which includes the wording \u2018or any job that you may reasonably become suited to\u2019,\u201d Mr Cain said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy concern is that the insurer may try to see if you can potentially be retrained, re-educated or gain experience in another occupation before you meet the definition and be eligible for a claim \u2013 meaning many people will not receive a payment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Cain also expressed his concern that AustralianSuper and TAL have not set out a timeframe within which the claim will be assessed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as I can tell, no time limit has been set for this to happen – how long will it take for the insurer to realise the member cannot be re-trained, re-educated or gain experience before the definition is met and you qualify for the lump sum benefit?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Cain urged members, and advisers with clients who hold insurance inside industry super funds, to make sure they understood what coverage was provided.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should explore your options and see what else is out there \u2013 a \u2018retail\u2019 life insurance policy, for example, can be funded by your superannuation but includes better definitions and is guaranteed renewable \u2013 meaning the insurer cannot change your existing policy definitions to make the policy inferior,\u201d Mr Cain said.<\/p>\n
To view a list of the other insurance changes, which include changes to the amount of basic cover provided for members under age 21, and a reduction in the amount of cover that can be added without underwriting, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A new definition of total and permanent disablement in superannuation that has recently been rolled out by AustralianSuper has been questioned by an industry stakeholder, who says the new wording may make it more difficult to get claims paid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5622],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-products","category-superannuation","headers-new"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Any retraining or reskilling you reasonably could be expected to do, and<\/em><\/li>\n
- What re-skilling, training or voluntary work you have done already,<\/em><\/li>\n