Group Protection

Friends Life has launched the Critical Illness Support Service (CISS) as part of its group critical illness (GCI) proposition.

While 41% of employees expect to rely on savings if forced out of work due to illness or injury, with the average household savings at only £20 a month (ONS Family Spending 2013), this is less than realistic, Group Risk Development (GRiD) has warned....

Group Risk Development (GRiD) has calculated that Legal & General accounted for a fifth (19.2%) of total claims value (£1.244bn) paid out by the group protection industry for group life, income protection and group critical illness in 2013.

The government's work and wellbeing agenda is ‘under major threat' as the ‘Fit Note' is failing to deliver on getting people back to work while long-term absence rates have increased; a study has warned.

Holloway Friendly has launched a new business insurance subsidiary, Optimal, to provide business protection cover and employee benefits exclusively via intermediaries.

Friends Life has revealed it paid out over £90m in group protection claims to over 2,300 people during 2013.

The Group Risk industry has published its claim paid rates for the first time revealing 99.6% of claims paid on group life, 82% on group income protection and 81% on group critical illness.

The Income Protection Task Force (IPTF) has launched ‘Seven Families', an industry initiative aiming to show income protection (IP) and its benefits at work to the wider public.

Employee assistance programmes (EAPs) are not a motivational tool for employees and are all about "protecting the risk of a company", says First Group reward and pensions director John Chilman.

Credit waiver experts have rebutted accusations that credit waiver products have restrictive payment exclusion periods and no unemployment cover, while announcing an imminent launch with the first mortgage lender to offer an integral waiver feature.