Life Insurance and Income Protection for Construction Labourers

Income Protection

For a stretch when illness or injury keeps you from site work, what could stand in for part of each placement’s pay?

Part of your income can be paid by income protection after a waiting period, to help with regular costs.

We’ll compare income protection for construction workers with you around how labouring pay arrives and what you’d have behind you.

Income protection is designed to pay part of your lost income if illness or injury stops you working, usually a percentage of your pre-tax earnings in the 12 months before the illness or injury. Each policy has its own definition of disability. Most policies offer a waiting period of between 14 days and two years, and you must be unable to work at the end of it to be paid.

What we look at with you for income protection:

• Pay from placements that start and stop, laid out month by month over the 12 months before any illness or injury
• Placements worked as a casual, where no sick pay comes in, weighed when picking a waiting period length
• Any savings you could draw on between placements, set against the weeks or months before a benefit starts
• Busy weeks and empty ones between placements, held against any weekly hours floor a policy sets
• How each insurer would count pay from labour hire, a builder or any tradie you invoice
• Payslips from each labour hire business or builder, plus invoices for any ABN work, gathered for an application
• Any scheme payments during time off site, and whether a policy offsets those payments against what it pays each month
• Paying for income protection from wages rather than a super balance, and what that means at tax time with your accountant

Learn more about Income Protection

Life Insurance

How much would anyone relying on you need to carry on with the plans your labouring pay supports, if you were no longer here?

Your beneficiaries can receive a lump sum from life cover, which can go towards debts, everyday costs and plans already made.

We can work through life insurance for construction workers with you, from any debts to anyone relying on your pay.

A life policy can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries if you pass away, and life cover may also come with terminal illness cover. Life insurers usually ask about your age and job when you apply. If you haven’t named a beneficiary, your estate or the super trustee may decide who receives the money, and cover sold in a package may be reduced by any amount paid on other claims in that package.

What we weigh up with you for life cover:

• Household costs met from pay that moves with each placement, added up as they run across a normal year
• Any default cover in a fund opened at whichever labouring or other job came first, counted with you
• Who gets your super: eligible people or your estate, written into a nomination wherever you hold labouring super
• A fund from an earlier placement holding life and TPD together, where any TPD payout may come off the life side
• Barricades, digging or traffic control written into a life application too, since insurers ask what you do
• Anyone you support on placement pay, such as a partner, children or a parent, and the years of help each may need
• Buying a first home or having a baby while on placement pay, as a point to recheck the figure with us
• A policy in your own name outside super, which doesn’t depend on which labour hire business or builder pays you

Learn more about Life Insurance

TPD Insurance

Thinking about the plans you’ve made, which would still need funding if you were never able to work again?

A lump sum from TPD cover can go towards debts and plans if you can’t work again, as the policy defines it.

We’ll weigh TPD definitions with you against the work you’ve done and any trade you may move towards.

TPD cover can pay a lump sum if illness or injury means you’re unlikely to work again, as the policy defines it. An own occupation definition looks at your usual job; an any occupation definition looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience. Own occupation cover is usually only available outside super, TPD cover in super usually ends at 65, and where TPD is packaged with life cover, a TPD payout may reduce it.

What we compare with you for TPD:

• Whether any policy offers a TPD test based on labouring itself, beside a test asking whether you could do any job suited to your experience
• Traffic control or plant tickets, a trade or leading hand years, and how a wider TPD test may weigh your experience
• TPD bundled into a fund opened at an earlier labouring or other job, and the wording behind it
• The job title a fund has for you, matched to demolition, civil or general labouring as you do it now
• TPD held in super, which usually ends at 65, compared with a labourer’s own policy outside super
• Combined TPD and life cover, where a TPD payout may leave a smaller life amount for anyone relying on you
• What you owe on any ute, personal loan or home loan, added up so the TPD figure starts from real debts
• Income protection for a stretch away from placements, and TPD for a permanent end to labouring, each sized separately

Learn more about TPD Insurance

Trauma Insurance

Which costs, from treatment to weeks away from site, might need covering after a serious diagnosis?

Diagnosed with a listed condition that meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded, you could receive a lump sum from trauma cover.

We’ll talk through the conditions a trauma policy lists with you, and how it sits beside income protection.

Trauma cover can pay a lump sum for a listed critical illness or serious injury that meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded. Medical definitions can be different between insurers, so each condition’s wording is worth reading closely. New trauma cover can’t be held inside super, which has been the rule for policies written since 1 July 2014, and where trauma is packaged with life cover, a trauma payment could reduce the life cover.

What we go through with you for trauma cover:

• A trauma policy’s list of conditions, read with you before you lean on it for time away from placements
• Some trauma lists pay a portion for conditions at an earlier stage, which we read through with you
• Labouring wages, not a super balance, funding any new trauma policy, since super rules exclude new trauma cover
• A single trauma payment for costs like a car loan or rehab, with any income protection there for part of your wages
• Combined trauma and life policies, and how much of the life sum may be left for anyone relying on you after a trauma claim
• Casual placements with no sick pay, and what a trauma payment could go towards while you’re off site
• A trauma policy from before your labouring days, and how its original terms sit beside what insurers offer now
• Trauma held in your own name, unaffected by moving between labour hire businesses, builders or tradies

Learn more about Trauma Insurance

Cover in Super

When a fund has moved with you from one employer to the next, how well does its cover suit your work today?

Knowing what each fund holds, and the job it records for you, gives you a clearer picture of any cover in place.

We’ll check the cover in each of your funds with you, and the occupation each one records.

Default cover inside super can usually be issued without medical checks, though it may carry pre-existing condition rules set out in the fund’s PDS, and increasing it is usually underwritten like any other application. If you stay with the same fund as you move between jobs, your insurance will usually stay with it, and Moneysmart notes that a stapled fund’s insurance might not suit your new job. Premiums are deducted from your super balance.

What we check in each fund with you:

• Insurance in your stapled fund, which usually stays with you from site to site as new employers pay into it
• General hand, labourer or traffic controller: the job a fund records, and asking it to correct a wrong one
• Super from different labour hire businesses or builders landing in two or more funds, if that’s your case, each deducting its own premiums
• Insurance in two funds claimed on together, where the policies decide whether more than one full benefit is paid
• Starting on site before 25, when insurance in a new fund may wait for you to ask, unless dangerous-job cover applies
• A fund’s exclusions, gone through with you so you know how they sit with demolition, civil or traffic work
• Lifting a fund’s cover above its starting level, where health questions usually come first
• A fund you’re thinking of leaving after a placement ends, its cover checked with you before any rollover

Learn more about Superannuation

One Title, Many Kinds of Site Work

With work that changes from site to site, how could an application describe what you actually do?

Clear duties on an application can give an insurer an accurate picture of your work, placement by placement.

We’ll list your duties with you, placement by placement, before any application goes in.

Life insurers usually ask about your age and job, and since 5 October 2021, the duty when applying for consumer life cover is to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation. Labouring can take in loading materials, erecting barricades, pouring concrete and digging, and one award, for example, names builders’ labourers, tradesperson’s labourers, demolition labourers, general hands, traffic controllers and spotters among its roles. At claim, an insurer can ask about your duties and weekly hours.

What we set out with you on the work you do:

• Duties on each recent placement, listed as the work actually ran, from loading materials to digging and pouring
• Traffic control and spotting, described as their own work rather than folded into general labouring
• Demolition, civil and road work, each set out in its own terms on any application
• Labouring beside a trade as a tradesperson’s labourer, and the tasks that work involves day to day
• Each application question answered with reasonable care, with anything unclear asked before you answer
• A quote form with one box for your job, and the duties a single title may leave out
• An offer with an exclusion or other changed terms, read with you before you accept it
• Duties and weekly hours kept on record across placements, ready for any insurer request at claim time

Learn more about Personal Insurance

Who Employs You, and What Comes With It

Once you know what labour hire, casual or ABN work each provides, how could that shape the cover you look at?

Mapping what each arrangement does and doesn’t provide can help you weigh personal cover with the full picture in front of you.

We can map each arrangement with you, then compare personal cover around it.

Fair Work says labour hire employers are responsible for providing their employees with their pay and entitlements, and all employees except casuals are entitled to paid sick and carer’s leave under the National Employment Standards. Hirers don’t generally cover contractors for paid sick leave or workers compensation, and each scheme sets who qualifies. The whole working arrangement, not an ABN alone, decides your status, and an accountant or lawyer can help confirm it.

What we map with you on each arrangement:

• A labour hire business as your employer, responsible for your pay and entitlements while you work on a host’s site
• Casual work, which carries no paid sick or carer’s leave under the National Employment Standards
• Casual loading on one award, for example, paid as compensation for leave including personal and carer’s leave
• Accident pay on one award, for example, which tops up workers compensation for a set time from the injury, if the claim is accepted
• ABN work for a tradie, where hirers don’t generally cover contractors for paid sick leave or workers compensation
• Your status as an employee or contractor, decided by the whole arrangement and confirmed by an accountant or lawyer
• Any injury or income cover in an agreement, which the business that employs you can confirm
• Public liability and tool insurance, left with a general insurance broker who can advise on them

Learn more about Income Protection

Making a Claim

When a claim needs forms, records and follow-ups, how could a financial adviser help keep it all moving?

Lodging and following up a claim with a financial adviser can make each step clearer while the insurer or fund assesses it.

We’ll lodge a claim with you, then follow each step while the insurer or fund assesses it.

Moneysmart suggests speaking first to whoever arranged the cover: the insurer, a financial adviser, your super fund or, for cover through an employment arrangement, your employer. An insurer can ask for details of your work duties, including physical requirements, and the hours you work each week, plus payslips and tax returns, or financial statements if you’re self-employed. The insurer or fund assesses the claim, and a complaint goes first to the insurer or super fund, then to AFCA.

How we help with a claim:

• Any cover through a labour hire or builder arrangement, where Moneysmart suggests speaking to the employer first
• Pay, leave or injury questions from a placement, which go to the labour hire business or other employer
• Each placement’s tasks and hours, from barricades to pouring, written up for the claim form
• Pay records from every placement in the year, plus any tradie invoices, matched to the insurer’s list of documents
• What your treating doctor says you can and can’t lift or carry, shared with your permission
• Records from a labour hire business of where you were placed and for how long, if the insurer asks for them
• Several labour hire businesses or builders in one year, any of which the insurer may ask to confirm your hours
• A return to lighter site tasks or fewer hours, and what the policy asks you to tell the insurer

Health Conditions & Illnesses

Could a health condition change the cover an insurer offers you?

Our guides explain what insurers may ask about common conditions, and a health condition doesn’t necessarily rule out cover.

We can help you prepare an application when you have a health condition or a past illness.

Underwriting is how an insurer assesses an application and decides whether to offer cover, on what terms and at what price. Possible outcomes include standard terms, a higher premium, an exclusion, a request to apply again later, or a decline.

Guides by health condition:

• Cover with a health condition: where to start
• Autoimmune conditions
• Back or joint conditions
• Blood conditions
• Cancer history
• Diabetes
• Digestive conditions
• Eye or hearing conditions
• Heart conditions
• HIV or hepatitis
• Kidney conditions
• Mental health conditions
• Neurological conditions
• Respiratory or sleep conditions
• Weight, smoking or alcohol history
• Women’s health conditions