Life Insurance and Income Protection for University Staff

Income Protection

Were teaching, research or campus work put on hold by illness or injury, what would keep income coming in?

Income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period, towards bills for as long as a claim is paid.

We’ll compare income protection with you around how your appointment is set up and any benefits you already hold.

Income protection can pay part of your income if illness or injury stops you working, usually based on your earnings in the 12 months before the illness or injury. Waiting periods can run from 14 days to 2 years, and you must be unable to work at the end of the waiting period to be paid. Some policies only cover you if you work a minimum number of weekly hours, and the cost outside super is generally a tax deduction.

What we work through with you on income protection:

• Sessional income that peaks in teaching periods and can drop between semesters, read against a policy’s 12-month look-back
• Part-time fractions and sessional loads, measured against any hours threshold written into a policy
• Any built-in temporary incapacity benefit in your super, and how a personal policy’s waiting period could sit beside it
• Semester timing and any accrued leave, weighed when you pick how many weeks pass before income protection starts paying
• Consulting, examining or prize income, and whether a policy’s income definition counts it, with tax left to your accountant
• Lab or fieldwork injuries, where a scheme payment may reduce what a personal policy pays each month
• Cover held in your own name, which isn’t tied to any one university if you move between them
• A promotion or higher duties allowance, with the insured income amount looked at again afterwards

Learn more about Income Protection

Life Insurance

Here or overseas, how could the people who matter to you keep their plans on track if you were no longer here?

Your beneficiaries can receive a lump sum towards debts, everyday costs and the plans already in place.

We’ll size life cover with you from your debts, anyone relying on your salary and any cover in super.

Life cover can pay a lump sum to the people you name as beneficiaries if you pass away, and some policies add a terminal illness benefit. When you apply, insurers usually ask your age and what you do for work. If no beneficiary is named, your estate or the super trustee may decide where the money goes, and cover packaged with other cover may be reduced by a claim paid on another part of the package.

What we work through for life cover:

• Any death benefit in a defined benefit option, worked out under the fund’s rules and set beside any personal cover
• Any default life cover in each accumulation account you hold, listed before any amount is settled
• After any switch from a defined benefit option to accumulation, the nominee on file, from eligible people or your estate
• Any regular support you send to relatives overseas, included when the lump sum is sized
• A household running on one academic or professional salary, if yours does, and the gap a lump sum would fill
• Study or school costs for children here or overseas, if you have children, built into the amount
• Rent or a mortgage near campus or elsewhere, and how many years of it the lump sum should cover
• Cover reviewed if a continuing appointment, a promotion or a first home changes your income or what you owe

Learn more about Life Insurance

TPD Insurance

What would still need paying for if research, teaching or your campus role stopped for good?

TPD cover can pay a lump sum towards debts and later plans when the policy’s definition of disability is met.

We’ll read TPD definitions with you beside any disablement benefit built into your super.

An own occupation TPD definition looks at your usual job, while an any occupation definition looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience, and own occupation cover is usually only available outside super. The disablement benefit built into the defined benefit option many university staff are offered has its own test: permanent incapacity for work you’re reasonably qualified for by training and experience, in the trustee’s opinion.

What we compare with you for TPD:

• The built-in disablement definition and an outside TPD policy’s definition, read side by side before any choice
• How “education, training or experience” wording in a TPD policy may read any doctorate, teaching or research experience
• An own occupation definition that measures you against your usual work, such as lecturing, research or a campus role
• Any monthly disablement payments to 65 set against a one-off TPD sum, and the mortgage or rent each could meet
• Any default TPD in an account from sessional or earlier jobs, checked with the fund to see whether it’s still in place
• Stepping into a head of school or other management role, and telling each fund so its occupation record stays current
• Future university earnings, not just the current contract, weighed when choosing a TPD amount
• A TPD amount matched to any mortgage and the plans you’d still want funded after work stops

Learn more about TPD Insurance

Trauma Insurance

Through treatment for a serious diagnosis, how might time away from teaching, the lab or your campus role be paid for?

A trauma lump sum can help with treatment and recovery when a listed condition meets the definition and isn’t excluded.

We’ll read a trauma policy’s list of conditions with you, and how it sits beside any built-in benefits.

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, and trauma insurance doesn’t 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:

• A trauma lump sum paid on a listed diagnosis, compared with built-in benefits that turn on being unable to work
• Any paid sick leave running out part way through treatment, and the semesters a lump sum could help cover
• A sessional contract finishing part way through treatment, and what a lump sum could cover until the next semester
• Travel to family overseas during treatment, if your family lives abroad, counted when choosing the lump sum
• Research time lost from a grant you lead, if you do, and the rent, bills or treatment a lump sum could cover
• A trauma policy in your own name, not tied to a contract ending or a move to another university
• Partial amounts for a less advanced diagnosis, where included, read against the policy’s full benefit
• Trauma cover chosen before any pre-retirement contract, and the amount looked at again as working years shorten

Learn more about Trauma Insurance

Cover in Super

From this university or earlier roles, does any cover in your super accounts still fit the work you do now?

Checking any account you hold shows what cover it has, so you can weigh it against the work you do now.

We’ll check each account’s cover with you, and set out any changes in a financial plan.

Members who meet a fund’s eligibility conditions, such as age and account balance, usually receive life and TPD cover automatically, and some funds also give income protection, for a set amount. 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. Premiums are deducted from your super balance.

What we look at in your super with you:

• Sessional contracts at two or more universities, and the separate super account and cover each may have opened
• Joining another university, and confirming which fund its contributions go to
• Built-in temporary incapacity payments compared with any income protection an accumulation account includes by default
• Your job title on each fund’s records, such as lecturer, research officer or lab technician, corrected with the fund if wrong
• Any illness you had before joining a fund, and whether the account’s automatic cover leaves it out
• Premiums for any cover an account holds reducing the balance saved for retirement, set beside what the cover would pay
• Super for a temporary resident, and a departing Australia superannuation payment that may be paid, less tax, once eligible after leaving
• Any increase to default cover after a continuing appointment or a family change, generally needing health questions answered

Learn more about Superannuation

Built-In Benefits in a Defined Benefit Option

Within any defined benefit option you’re in, what could the built-in benefits do for you, and what would change them?

Knowing what you hold, and what changes it, puts you in a clearer position before any choice about the option.

We’ll read any built-in benefits with you, and what changes them, before any choice about the option.

In the defined benefit option many university staff are offered, a temporary incapacity benefit can be paid monthly for up to two years, starting after its waiting period and any paid sick leave, and a disablement benefit can be paid monthly to 65. Both are worked out under the fund’s rules, and the trustee decides. Neither is payable if the incapacity starts more than 90 days after contributing service ends.

What we read with you in any built-in benefits:

• The temporary incapacity benefit’s start date, after its waiting period and any paid sick leave have run out
• The two-year limit on temporary incapacity payments, set beside the benefit period a personal policy could offer
• Any disablement benefit, monthly to 65 or partly as a lump sum if eligible, compared with a personal policy’s definition
• A pre-existing condition limit while you have less than three years of contributing service as a member
• The 90 days after contributing service ends, set beside any contract end date on your calendar
• A move to accumulation, and what the fund’s insurance guide says applies instead, read before the choice
• Leaving the university sector, and which personal cover could take the place of any built-in benefits
• Any gap between built-in benefits and the cover your household needs, compared with you across insurers

Learn more about Income Protection

Sessional, Fixed-Term and Fractional Work

As semesters, contract end dates or your fraction change, how could your cover keep pace?

Planning ahead of each date gives you time to see what carries over and what’s worth looking at again.

We’ll time a review of your cover with you around semesters, contract end dates and changes of fraction.

Where the academic staff award applies, casual lecture and tutorial rates include associated working time, marking is paid at its own rate, and casual employees aren’t entitled to paid sick leave. That award allows fixed terms for externally funded projects, and for research-only roles of up to 5 years. Almost all universities have enterprise agreements that set their own terms. Income protection usually looks at earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury.

What we look at with you as your appointment changes:

• Lectures, tutorials and marking paid as separate activities, and how an insurer’s own wording may count sessional hours
• Teaching weeks and non-teaching breaks inside the 12 months that income protection usually looks back on
• Savings to carry a waiting period when sessional work comes with no paid sick leave
• Grant or contract end dates, with any cover read well before the date arrives
• A lower fraction or a half-pay year, and the earnings a policy would then work from
• A pre-retirement contract, and each cover amount looked at again for the years it runs
• Research-only contracts that may or may not be renewed, with cover planned for either outcome
• Questions only your university or agreement can answer, such as leave terms, listed with you to ask

Learn more about Personal Insurance

Making a Claim

Who could be beside you through the forms, reports and follow-up a claim involves?

Support with documents and updates can make a claim easier to manage while the fund or insurer assesses it.

We’ll lodge a claim with you with the fund or the insurer, and stay with it while they assess it.

Moneysmart suggests speaking first to whoever arranged the cover: a financial adviser, the fund, the insurer or, for cover through an employment arrangement, your employer. An insurer can ask for details of your work duties, including physical requirements, the hours you work each week, and payslips and tax returns. A claim for a built-in benefit asks for a member’s statement, an employer’s statement and doctors’ reports, and a complaint goes first to the insurer or super fund, then to AFCA.

How we help with a claim:

• For university cover, a first call to the fund or financial adviser behind it, and the claim made to the insurer, or the fund for super
• A member’s statement prepared with you, and the employer’s statement your university completes, for any built-in benefit claim
• Per-activity payslips or contract salary schedules, gathered to show what you earned in the lead-up
• Teaching load, research or professional duties and any fieldwork or lab work described as they were before you stopped
• Medical evidence about which lectures, lab sessions, field trips or other duties you can no longer manage, gathered with your consent
• Hurt in a lab or on fieldwork: any workers compensation sits with the scheme, and we help with forms for insurance you hold yourself
• Returning to work on a reduced load or fraction, and any partial payments the policy makes in that period
• An outcome you don’t accept on a built-in benefit or policy claim, reviewed by the trustee or insurer before AFCA

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