Personal Accident and Illness Insurance (IPA Cover) offers financial protection when you can no longer work due to an injury or sickness. A policy will cover your lost income while you aren’t working or pay you a lump sum payment if you permanently cannot work due to a severe injury or illness.
The cover is a great option for those that aren’t covered by Worker’s Compensation such as consultants, contractors, sole traders or directors, and can also act as a top up for when your income exceeds the weekly benefits that a Worker’s Comp cover will pay. It also is flexible and adaptable to your current situation. There’s many reason to love Personal Accident cover but here are just a few of them:
1. No Health Checks
Unlike some other insurance policies, a personal accident policy will not require you to get a medical or health examination. It means you can get cover quickly and don’t have to go through a potentially expensive visit to the doctors first. Now, while you should be aware that you won’t be covered for any pre-existing conditions, you can still save yourself a whole lot of time, energy and money on your cover.
2. Off the clock cover
The great thing about IPA cover is that it gives you protection not just when you are on the job but even when you have clocked off. In fact it covers you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Now not only is that pretty great, it also gives you cover anywhere in the world. If you are someone that travels for work, or just for life in general, it’s great to know that you can be covered for an accident or an illness anywhere.
3. Adjustable low premiums
With IPA cover you’ll pay lower premiums than similar life insurance or Total & Permanent Disability coverage. You’ll also have the benefit of being able to adjust your cover options to suit your situation, so you don’t have to pay a higher premium for cover that you don’t need.
If you think you have enough savings to get you through a month were you to become ill or injured, you can save on your premiums by choosing a longer waiting period of 21 or 28 days.
You can also save by varying your benefit period, which is the amount of time that you will be paid for if you were unable to work from 2 years to 1 year.
4. Death and Disablement Cover
You can also choose to add an option for Death and Disablement cover to your policy. As morbid as it may be, this cover will pay you or your beneficiaries in the hopefully unlikely chance of your death or a permanent injury (such as paralysis or loss of limb).
While it’s hard to get excited about something that only will come into effect if you are seriously injured or worse, this type of coverage can be a much needed support for your love ones.
5. Free extras
Along with being flexible and adjustable, most Personal Accident and Illness cover will offer some pretty cool extras such as transport assistance for up to 12 weeks, reimbursement of membership fees (such as the gym) and return to work assistance if you are in need of rehabilitation or retraining.
Personal Accident and Illness Policies start from $450. You can compare quotes and check out your cover options.
