Insurance upgrades

Cbus has renewed its insurance contract with its insurer, Hanover Life Re, which allowed members access to more Death and Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) insurance cover. These changes took effect from 1 December 2011. This page provides a summary of the benefit enhancements that will be available.

Insurance scale increases

Under these improved benefits, members on the Manual, Non-Manual and Spouse insurance scales will receive higher amounts of cover upon joining the fund after 1 December 2011 (conditions and eligibility will apply for existing members). The table below provides a snapshot of these new levels.

From 1 December 2011, each unit will provide:

Click here for more detailed information on our Insurance Scales.

Please note the insurance scales for Electech Members will remain unchanged.

Eligibility

Some eligibility conditions apply for existing insured Cbus members. These are:

• You must be in active employment on 1 December 2011; and
• Your date of death, date of diagnosis (for Terminal Illness) or date of disablement (for TPD) must be on or after 1 December 2011.

If you don’t meet the eligibility conditions because you are not in active employment, you will only be eligible for the higher amount of TPD cover for an accident or illness that first occurs after 1 December 2011.

Cost of insurance cover

The cost of each unit of death and TPD cover will remain at $1.95 per unit per week for all occupation categories, Manual, Non Manual and Spouse members.

However, if you are a Manual occupation member insured for death only cover, your premium will reduce from $1.35 per unit per week to $1.19 per unit per week from 1 December 2011. The cost of death cover for Non Manual occupation and Spouse members will remain at $1.35 per unit per week.

Access to additional TPD cover for Manual members

Another new feature to the Cbus insurance benefit for TPD is the ability to purchase additional units of TPD cover. This is subject to a maximum of 20 units of TPD cover provided that your amount of TPD cover does not exceed your amount of death cover.

For example, members under age 50, you can now have equal death and TPD cover of up to $520,000 by applying to have a total of 10 units of death and TPD cover and an additional 10 units of TPD cover (20 TPD units in total). Each unit of additional TPD cover will cost $0.76 per week.

As an existing Manual member, you can apply for additional units of TPD cover after 1 December 2011 by completing an Application to increase insurance cover including a Personal Health Statement. Your application is subject to acceptance by the insurer.

Recommencement of cover after 1 December 2011

If you are not in active employment on the date your cover commences or recommences, you will receive new events TPD cover in addition to death cover. This means that we will cover you for TPD for any accident or illness that occurs on or after the date your cover commenced or recommenced until you are in active employment. Once you are in active employment, you will be covered for TPD for all claim causes.

Improvements to the TPD definition

Combining with a higher insured benefit is a broader definition to TPD, which will allow faster and simpler access to TPD benefits for certain medical conditions.

The following improvements will apply for claims where the date of disablement is on or after 1 December 2011:

• Immediate acceptance of your claim if you are suffering from Paraplegia, Quadriplegia, Hemiplegia, Diplegia or Tetraplegia
• Removal of the waiting period completely for particular medical conditions
• A reduced waiting period to claim from 6 to 3 months for all other medical conditions
• An increase from 6 to 12 months for the period where we will assess you against your prior occupation if you are not employed as at your date of disablement
• Better assessment conditions for members performing home duties as their full time occupation as at the date of disablement
• The introduction of a new assessment condition for members that have not been in employment in the 12 months prior to the date of disablement. This will allow the insurer to assess your ability to perform everyday work activities and likelihood of you returning to employment.

All in all, these are big improvements for Cbus insured members.

More information

Our Insurance Handbooks contain the full details of the new insurance scales, the improved TPD definition and all other conditions that are relevant to your death and TPD insurance cover.