TPD insurance is intended to help support people who have suffered an injury or illness serious enough to mean that they are unable to return to the workplace. TPD stands for total and permanent disability. It covers claimants who, due to disability, are unable to work in their previous role or unable to return to work in any job for which they have the right training, skillset, education and experience. TPD insurance is paid out as a lump sum to help to support the medical and financial needs of successful claimants.
When it comes to TPD insurance it is often bundled in with other products, which means that many people may not know that they are actually covered, sometimes under multiple policies. That’s why if you are employed you should always check that you are covered for total and permanent disability, to help support you in case of a debilitating injury or illness.
How to check whether you have TPD insurance
There are many ways that you might be eligible for disability benefits, including through life insurance, income protection cover, mortgage protection and illness or injury policies. However, the most common way to be covered for TPD is through your superannuation policy, which is why this is the best place to start in order to understand what benefits you might be entitled to.
- Review your superannuation statements. Probably the easiest place to start is to review your annual superannuation statements. These will include information on your investments, fees and what insurance is held by the account. Here you can get information on your policies and a better understanding of what you might be covered for.
- Review all your superannuation accounts, including your old policies. An important thing to note on TPD insurance is that you can claim it on multiple policies, which means that if you have multiple superannuation accounts, you may also be able to claim multiple payouts. Even if your old superannuation account is no longer active, you may still be able to claim on your old insurance policies if they were active during the time when you last worked before your injury or illness.
- Understand when you were covered under TPD policies. With most superannuation accounts you would be covered under TPD insurance until the day you last worked. This means that if you were injured, then stopped work soon after but didn’t claim your TPD insurance until years after you would still be covered under the insurance that was in place at the time of ceasing work.
- Call your superannuation fund. If you cannot find your annual statements then you should go online or give your superannuation fund a call to find out what you might be covered under.
- Enquire with your employer or the ATO if you don’t know where your superannuation is held. If you don’t know what superannuation account you hold then you can either get in touch with your employer or call the Australian Tax Office who may have a record of the account.
- Let LawAdvice make the enquiries on your behalf. It can be daunting trying to gather the above information. As such, we offer a service where we will perform all of the enquiries for you and advise whether you have a potential TPD claim.
It is always a good idea to reach out to an expert if you are unsure what you might be covered under or what benefits you might be eligible for. Call an expert TPD insurance lawyer to help maximise your chances of a successful claim and maximise your potential payout.