{"id":47839,"date":"2020-01-17T10:34:05","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T23:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=47839"},"modified":"2020-01-22T06:59:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T19:59:00","slug":"fsc-bushfire-victims-to-be-treated-as-vulnerable-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2020\/01\/17\/fsc-bushfire-victims-to-be-treated-as-vulnerable-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"Bushfire Victims to be Treated as Vulnerable Customers &#8211; FSC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Life insurers will treat people making a claim related to the bushfires as vulnerable customers who need additional support, under the FSC Life Insurance Code of Practice, the Financial Services Council has announced.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_47841\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-47841\" style=\"width: 159px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2020\/01\/Sally-Loane2-e1579214794283.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-47841\" src=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2020\/01\/Sally-Loane2-e1579214794283.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"159\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-47841\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">FSC&#8217;s CEO Sally Loane &#8230;Australians can rely on their life insurance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>FSC CEO <strong>Sally Loane<\/strong> said in a media release that this announcement was in addition to the individual commitments already made by life insurers to support people affected by the bushfires.<\/p>\n<h6>Affected Australians will have their claims assessments and decisions prioritised&#8230;<\/h6>\n<p>\u201cThis means affected Australians will have their claims assessments and decisions prioritised and people may have access to advance payments to help alleviate financial hardship,\u201d Loane said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are no general exclusions in life insurance which would stop an insurer from paying claims after a natural disaster like a bushfire. Australians can rely on their life insurance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe code requires that all customers are treated with compassion, respect and empathy, but also recognises that some vulnerable people may have unique needs when making a claim on their life insurance, and if so, additional support will be provided,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n<p>Recently the FSC launched a new service for Australians and their loved ones to use, <a href=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2020\/01\/10\/australian-bushfires-finding-lost-life-insurance-policies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">if life insurance policy details have been lost or destroyed<\/a> as a result of the bushfires.<\/p>\n<p>FSC notes that life insurers have also made a broad range of additional, individual commitments when handling claims related to the bushfires. They include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Prioritising bushfire related claims<\/li>\n<li>Waiving premiums for volunteer firefighters who are putting themselves at risk so they can maintain their cover while not earning in their usual job<\/li>\n<li>Waiving premiums for affected people<\/li>\n<li>Special leave days for staff who are emergency service volunteers who have been impacted<\/li>\n<li>Reducing the evidence requirements for related claims<\/li>\n<li>Offering mental health, Employment Assistance Programme and other support services to affected customers and their families<\/li>\n<li>Proactively contacting customers in affected postcodes<\/li>\n<li>Donating cash to fundraising organisations<\/li>\n<li>Allowing more time for customers to submit documents<\/li>\n<li>Contacting customers after hours<\/li>\n<li>Providing immediate information and referrals for affected customers to government agencies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To access a copy of the code <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fsc.org.au\/resources\/1695-life-insurance-code-of-practice-with-appendix\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Life insurers will treat people making a claim related to the bushfires as vulnerable customers who need additional support, under the FSC Life Insurance Code of Practice, the Financial Services Council has announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":47917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7022,4736,6875],"class_list":["post-47839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-general","tag-bushfires","tag-fsc","tag-sally-loane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47839","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}