Total and Permanent Disability or TPD insurance is a benefit attached to many superannuation accounts.
TPD insurance cover, if provided for under your membership, is a benefit that is in addition to your superannuation account balance, which has accumulated over the course of your working life. You would recognise this as your retirement money.
Often people are not aware that they have additional insurance cover attached to their superannuation account and is often overlooked.
As a general rule you can claim on a TPD benefit through both injury and illness. The claims process is essentially a ‘no fault’ process, in that it does not matter how you have become sick or injured, it just matters that you are.
In most cases in order to be successful in an application for insurance benefits you will need to be able to demonstrate that due to injury or illness you are no longer capable of returning to any form of employment that you could have otherwise obtained.
When considering what other employment you would have been able to obtain the superannuation fund and/or the underwriter insurer of the superannuation fund will take into consideration the education, training and experienced that you have obtained over the course of your life. These may include the level of schooling that you achieved, any tertiary studies successfully completed, apprenticeships and/or special tickets and licences that you have obtained.
Further, the superannuation fund will consider your employment history and the experience that you have obtained from any role that you have been engaged in, particularly whether you have gained supervisory skills in any of these roles or other skills that might be transferrable between employment fields.
When considering an applicant’s education, training and experience the superannuation fund needs to take somewhat of a practical perspective to the assessment. An applicant needs to be capable of obtaining and maintaining employment within their education, training and experience in a real sense. So that if an applicant retains a theoretical capacity to return to some work, this will not be sufficient to reject a claim for benefits.
The benefit amount attached to insurance through superannuation can vary greatly between members and funds generally. It is important to understand your entitlements to claim against any superannuation insurance so that you can potentially take advantage of insurance that you have paid a premium to hold if and when the need arises.
Get in touch with us
To meet with our experienced superannuation lawyers or request information about the claim process, please do not hesitate to contact Turner Freeman Lawyers on 13 43 63 or visit us at any of our Queensland offices in Brisbane, Logan, North Lakes, Ipswich, Toowoomba, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Cairns.