Life Insurance and Income Protection for Corrections Officers

Income Protection

Should illness or injury keep you away from work for a while, what would keep household income coming in?

Part of your income can be paid by income protection after a waiting period, worked from what you earned before.

We’ll look at any income cover you hold with you, and any gap, around pay that can include overtime.

Each income protection policy has its own definition of disability and of the income it covers, and the benefit is usually based on your earnings in the 12 months before the illness or injury. Overtime and penalties may or may not count under that definition. You choose a waiting period and a benefit period when you apply.

What we look at with you for income protection:

• Which year of overtime an income protection benefit would be measured on, since it usually looks back 12 months
• Night and weekend penalties on custodial rosters, checked against what each policy’s income definition would count
• A heavy overtime year beside a lighter one, so the insured amount is chosen with both in view
• Accrued personal leave, if any, used to bridge pay until a chosen waiting period ends
• Benefit periods weighed against how long a recovery could take, after an illness or an injury on or off duty
• A top-up from a union policy during a work injury claim, and the offsets wording that decides how it sits with any income protection
• A graded return to a unit or a desk role, and any partial benefit a policy pays while hours are lower
• Second jobs or casual shifts at another centre, and whether a policy counts that income too

Learn more about Income Protection

Life Insurance

Who would carry on the plans you share if you were no longer here?

Your beneficiaries could receive a lump sum from a life policy, to help the people relying on you keep those plans going.

Together, we’ll count every source of life cover, from each fund to any membership benefit, against what your household would need.

Life insurers usually ask about your age and job when you apply, and a policy can pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries if you pass away. Some policies include a terminal illness benefit. If no beneficiary is named, your estate or the super trustee may decide where the money goes.

What we work through for life cover:

• Death cover left in super from a career before corrections, counted with any cover in the fund your employer pays into now
• Accidental death benefits through a union or member organisation, which pay for an accident only
• Each super fund’s beneficiary nomination for eligible people or your estate, and a check of who any membership cover would pay
• A mortgage, car loans and school costs, if they apply, turned into a life cover figure
• Overtime-level pay the household leans on, if it does, and the lump sum that would stand in for it
• Cover that may end with a job or a membership, set against life cover held in your own name
• Funeral and estate costs, and any gap left by any membership funeral benefit, added to the life cover figure
• Any step up to supervisor, a first home or a new operator, each worth a fresh look at the life cover sum

Learn more about Life Insurance

TPD Insurance

Were you never able to work again, how would the longer-term plans you’ve made still be paid for?

TPD cover can pay a lump sum, as the policy defines total and permanent disability, towards debts and living costs.

We’ll read each TPD definition with you against corrections work and the other work your training or experience could suit.

Each TPD policy defines total and permanent disability in its own way. An any occupation definition looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience, while an own occupation definition looks at your usual job and is usually only available outside super. Which definitions are offered can depend on your occupation.

What we compare with you for TPD:

• Jobs such as security, administration or training, and whether an any occupation definition counts them as suited to your experience
• Any TPD held outside super and any fund cover, read for whether each looks at your usual job or any suitable job
• Custodial, escort, community or youth justice duties described plainly, with the insurer assessing any TPD claim under the policy’s definition
• Everyday-activity tests some TPD policies can apply instead of a work test, read before relying on the wording
• TPD sitting in funds from jobs before corrections, totalled before any of those accounts is closed
• Life and TPD sold as one package, where a TPD payment may shrink the life sum that remains
• A TPD lump sum sized around debts and the years of pay, including any overtime, it would stand in for
• A TPD claim alongside any workers compensation lump sum, with each body assessing its own part

Learn more about TPD Insurance

Trauma Insurance

Through treatment for a serious illness, what would help cover the costs at home while shifts are missed?

A trauma policy can pay a lump sum for a listed condition that meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded.

Together, we’ll go through the conditions a trauma policy lists, and where a lump sum would sit beside your other cover.

Medical definitions can be different between insurers, so the same condition can be worded differently from one trauma policy to the next. Trauma insurance does not cover mental health conditions. New trauma cover can’t be held inside super, which has been the rule for policies written since 1 July 2014.

What we read with you in a trauma policy:

• How differently insurers word the same trauma condition, compared before any policy is chosen
• Early-stage payouts on some trauma policies, and the sum insured remaining afterwards
• Serious injury events that some trauma policies list, and the medical threshold set for each
• Recovery time after surgery or treatment, and how a trauma payment could fund it without drawing on leave
• Any overtime that rises and falls, with a trauma premium planned around a quieter year’s budget
• Trauma bought by itself or added onto life cover, and what each would leave if a trauma claim is paid
• Cover bought before corrections, held on the policy’s own terms, read for when they can change before any replacement
• Shifts and any overtime lost during treatment, and the household bills a trauma lump sum could meet while you recover

Learn more about Trauma Insurance

Cover in Super

Does the cover in any super fund you hold still match the corrections work you do today?

Reading each fund’s cover before changing anything can show what you hold and how well it fits.

We’ll check each fund’s cover with you and set out any change in a financial plan, or Statement of Advice.

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. It is often a set amount, and for a new member under 25 it generally doesn’t start automatically unless you ask the fund. It’s worth checking your insurance before changing super funds or closing an account.

What we look at in your super with you:

• Accounts opened in jobs before corrections, each one’s insurance read before anything is merged
• Whatever default cover each fund’s own terms give you, compared with corrections pay that rises with any overtime
• Income protection inside a fund, checked for whether overtime from custodial shifts is counted in its income figure
• A return to work after time off, and any fund rule on conditions that existed before cover began
• Premiums taken from the balance for cover that a union or membership policy may already duplicate
• Officers under 25 new to a fund, where cover may need a request to the fund before it begins
• A move from a public to a private operator, or back, with super contributions generally following you to your existing fund
• Any plan to combine funds after a centre changes hands, with each fund’s insurance read first

Learn more about Superannuation

Public and Private Employers

Whoever your employer is, public or private, how would you know what happens to any cover through work if that changes?

Knowing what follows the employer and what stays with you can make any change simpler to plan around.

We’ll read any cover through your employer and super with you, and look again before any operator change or new offer.

A privately operated centre, court custody or escort service is a different employer from a government-run centre, even when the work looks the same. A centre can move between private and public management, and staff may stay on site with a new employer. For a claim on cover through an employment arrangement, Moneysmart suggests speaking to the employer first.

What we read with you, employer by employer:

• Cover through work under a government-run or a privately operated employer, read for who provides it
• Court custody and escort work under a private contract, and any cover that comes with that employer
• A centre changing operator while you stay on site, and which cover may not continue with the old employer
• A job offer from another operator, with the cover through work compared before you accept
• Your existing super fund, which a new employer generally pays into unless you choose another
• Default cover in any fund an employer first chose for you, read for whether it still suits your work
• Questions only payroll or HR can answer about cover through work, sent to them with your consent
• Personal cover looked at only where a gap sits between any layers of cover you hold

Learn more about Personal Insurance

Applying After Time Off

Looking at cover again after time away from work, what would make each question on the form clearer?

Preparing the application together, one question at a time, can help you answer each one with care.

Together, we’ll prepare an application after any time off work, answering each question with care.

Since 5 October 2021, the duty when applying for consumer life cover is to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation, which means answering the questions asked with reasonable care. If you leave out important details, the insurer may change or cancel your cover or refuse a claim (Moneysmart). For a past or current mental health condition, the Life Code commits subscribing insurers to consider higher premiums, exclusions, limits and caps rather than not providing cover at all.

What we prepare with you for an application:

• Questions an insurer may ask about time off work, treatment and any past claim, read before you start
• Each answer given with reasonable care, using the dates and details from your own records
• Possible outcomes, from standard terms to a loading, an exclusion, a deferral or a decline, all decided by the insurer
• Alternative terms, such as an exclusion for a condition, explained so you know how long they’re meant to apply
• A review of alternative terms, which you can ask the insurer for when your circumstances change
• Existing cover read before it is replaced, since any new application is assessed on your health today
• Default cover in super and its pre-existing condition rules, read beside any new application
• Any question on the form about a past workers compensation claim, read together and answered with reasonable care

Learn more about Life Cover With a Health Condition

Making a Claim

Should you ever need to claim, who would help gather everything the insurer asks for?

Gathering the documents together and following up can leave you more room for everything else while the insurer decides.

We’ll lodge a claim with you on any personal or super policy and follow up while the insurer assesses it.

Moneysmart suggests speaking first to whoever you arranged the cover through, such as a financial adviser, the fund, the insurer or, for cover through an employment arrangement, the employer. An insurer can ask for details of your work duties, including physical requirements, and the number of hours you work each week, along with payslips. The insurer assesses the claim. A complaint goes first to the insurer or super fund, then to AFCA if you can’t reach an agreement.

How we help with a claim:

• Who to contact first for each layer, from a fund or insurer to a union policy or an employer arrangement
• Two tracks kept apart: the scheme decides any work injury claim, and the insurer decides its own
• A union or membership policy claim made on its own wording, kept apart from other claims
• A day on a custodial unit, an escort run or a community caseload, described to the insurer in plain terms
• Overtime and penalty pay shown line by line across the year an income protection claim looks back over
• Doctors’ reports and shift rosters a claim may need, and the consent the insurer will ask you for to collect them
• Progress forms during a graded return to shifts, with any change in hours reported as it happens
• Claims made after a centre has changed operator, with the right employer records requested for the period claimed