It’s the last thing anyone wants to think about – but future-proofing your financial situation is a must, and that means knowing what you would do if an illness or injury prevented you from working.
Total Permanent Disability (TPD) Insurance is also known as a disability insurance benefit. It is coverage provided by many in their superannuation funds. If you have TPD Insurance as part of your super fund, it’s an additional benefit to the contributions you and your employer make. Unfortunately, many people are unaware that they have permanent disability work cover. Here’s what you need to know.
How Does A Total Permanent Disability Insurance Claim Work?
The first step to making a TPD claim is to provide evidence that you are unfit (permanently) for your regular employment or for any other type of employment you are qualified for, based on your experience, training, or education. For example, if you have limited qualifications and your only role has been manual labour, an injury or illness would seriously curtail your ability to pursue work.
This would allow you to successfully claim TPD even if a doctor found you to be fit enough to work in an office. However, if you have always been an office worker, your injury or illness may not prevent you from returning to work so your TPD claim is less likely to succeed.
The how or why of your injury or illness are not important – what is important in TPD claims is that your illness or injury has left you with a total and permanent disability. If you receive workers’ compensation or a disability support pension from Centrelink, you are eligible to claim TPD.
Why You Need Legal Help With Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) Claims
You might wonder how total permanent disability in superannuation is linked. As noted earlier, your TPD insurance is tied to your super fund. Before you make a claim, you will need to find out whether you have a policy in place or still in force. That means you need to look through all of your employment records and private insurance files to find a policy you may have a claim against. This is why legal help is so important because a legal team can help you track down any TPD insurance policies associated with all your historical superannuation funds.
What is the Process & How Long Does it Take
Once you are certain you have TPD insurance, you can start the claims process. The first step is proving you have a total and permanent disability. For this, you will need supporting evidence from doctors’ reports that support medical evidence. You can file your claim through your super. The fund’s trustee will review the claim before distributing any funds if your claim is approved.
There is more than one type of TPD insurance policy. Some require evidence that you are incapable of returning to the job you had while others will require evidence that you cannot work any position in the industry in which you are trained or educated. The most restrictive policies will only pay out if your illness or injury prevents you from returning to any job.
A lawyer will help you find all the active policies attached to your supers in order to find active policies to ensure you have the best chance possible at succeeding in your claim. The average claim takes around six months from start to finish. Default TPD insurance can pay anywhere from $80,000-$400,000 for a claim. Pursuing cover separate from your super will pay out more, but it comes at a high monthly cost.
How AJB Stevens Can Help With TPD Insurance Claims
Any illness or injury that leaves you with a total and permanent disability allows you to file a TPD claim, but you need to prove that based on the policy type you hold. The process itself is simple enough, but you should always use a lawyer to ensure you have all the correct documents and information in place before you pursue a claim.
We will contact the relevant super fund on your behalf, and ensure you have the documents and information to proceed. You are already dealing with a radical change in circumstances, the last thing you need to take on is a fight we can take on for you. You can concentrate on your health and we will concentrate on your compensation.
The best time to consult a lawyer in relation to a TPD claim is before you make contact with your super. It’s important to check all of your supers to find a valid policy that covers your situation and we can help you do that. If you believe you have TPD insurance and want to pursue a claim, get in touch with AJB Stevens to schedule a consultation with a member of our dedicated team. We have a 99% success rate and operate a no-win, no-fee policy.
