Personal Accident & Illness Insurance - Overview
Click here for a more information or a quote for Personal Accident & Illness insurance.
Read this guide to assist you in assessing your insurance requirements.
This type of insurance can provide you with weekly or monthly and lump sum benefits for accidents that have caused you injury or even accidental death in this case payments are made to your estate.
Optional protection is also available in the event of you being unable to work due to illness.
The coverage for Personal Accident &/or Illness insurance is broader than that of Workers Compensation because it covers the above events 24 hours 7 days a week where as Workers Compensation claims are limited to accidents or workplace diseases that occur during working hours. Claims can be made on both a Workers Compensation policy and a Personal Accident and Illness policy for the same injury but in this event the Workers Compensation claim must be made first and the Personal Accident & Ilnness policy cover is claimed in addition. An example of this would be a person who may have an accident at work and their employer would make a claim on their Workers Compensation policy.If the employee is paid above award wages by their employer the Workers Compensation claim benefits are limited to the employees award wages and their medical expenses. If the employee also has a Presonal Accident &/or Illness policy they would be paid the difference between the award & their nominated benefit.
The amount of the weekly or monthly benefit paid is determined by your provable annual income, the insurers look at your previous 12 months income as the basis of proof and usually insurers will cover up to 75 to 80% of this income. The length of time the benefits are paid for can range from 2 years to lifetime dependant on your requirements and the insurers acceptance.
The lump sum benefits are paid in addition to the weekly or monthly benefits and are scaled by percentage for example loss of a finger the insured may be paid 10% of their lump sum benefit but in the case of quadreplega they would receive 100% of the lump sum benefit. The lump sum benefits are usually determined by the weekly or monthly benefit amount. For example if your monthly benefit was $5,000 your lump sum benefit is 10 times this amount being $50,000, if more cover is required it can be applied for and the insurer may accept or limit this on a case by case basis.
Policies are also subject to waiting periods before you can claim these usually range from 7 days or more.
The insurers take into account pre existing medical conditions when underwriting this insurance and claims may be excluded for these conditions.
Click here for a more information or a quote for Personal Accident & Illness insurance.