Unum has today announced a range of enhancements to its Group Income Protection (GIP) products
The key change is the inclusion of an Associated Business Cost cover option within Unum's GIP products. This will mean that costs associated with a worker being absent due to illness or injury can be covered under one policy, including employer pension and National Insurance (NI) contributions, holiday pay cover and premiums for other benefits, such as group life cover or Private Medical Insurance (PMI). It could even include costs such as providing a company car or mobile phone.
Wojciech Dochan, Head of Commercial Marketing at Unum, said: "Employers are increasingly looking to cover the costs associated with an employee being off sick long-term and while some expenses, such as employer pension contributions and NI contributions, can often be covered by GIP policies, there are so many more expenses that can't.
Additional enhancements to Unum's GIP policies include:
· Removing any time limits for the duration of secondments, meaning employers no longer need to notify Unum about employee secondments
· Cover for members temporarily absent for reasons other than ill health is now automatic for a period of three years; provided they are declared in the membership data and premium is paid in respect of them
· Unum Limited Term policies will now allow multiple claims as long as the employee completes a successful return to work in between claims
· For linked claims, benefits will restart at the previous amount and will be reviewed to take account of any increases on completion of an assumed deferred period from the date the absence starts again
· Where a scheme is switching to Unum, Unum will now agree to link absences prior to the date of switch to form part of the deferred period
· Where a scheme is switching away, if the new insurer is unable to link absences prior to inception of their cover, Unum will agree to consider initial benefit after completion of its deferred period, until the insurer's deferred period has been completed
All of the changes take effect from 12 April 2010, except for the Associated Business Cost cover, which will be implemented in early June.
