Disability Insurance can come in a number of forms such as a lump sum payment, and/or a monthly benefit payment for a set period of time, but the scope of this article is the large up front disability payment type.
Total and Permanent Disability
When it comes to Disability Insurance there are some rules and criteria that must be met for you to be determined as being totally disabled. This up front payment is designed to fill the gap in the case where you may need a substantial benefit payment because you may not ever return to work.
This benefit payment should not be confused with Income Protection cover, where Income Protection pay you a monthly benefit to replace your income, Income Protection in simple terms is not considered a Total and Permanent Disability
Meeting Disablement Definitions
You must meet the definition of disability to be eligible, and the definition may vary slightly between each insurer, but the essence of the definition is “Unable to perform your own occupation you were involved in prior to disability, and unlikely to ever return to work”.
Once you meet the eligible criteria and definition, any lump sum payment made to you is yours to keep and can be used for any purpose, even if at some later stage you return to the workforce, but of course, you need to refer to your policy wording and talk to us about the right Disability Insurance cover for you.
Affordable Disability Insurance
Total and Permanent Disability is very affordable and it is a way of really boosting your insurance payout. The pricing depends on your Gender, Age, Occupation and current Health Status.
You can also have an option that if you were every paid a lump sum under your Disability cover, you can re-instate the cover and buy it back again.
This type of cover can be purchased on its own without any other forms of insurance, or you can buy Life Insurance and made the disability payment an accelerated payment of your Life Insurance.
There are some critical policy wordings that could determine your eligibility to claim because not all contracts are the same, so please contact us to review your current cover, or to talk about taking out new disability cover.