Voluntary benefits
Products and services the employer does not fund can be offered to employees as voluntary benefits. Employers 'sponsor' sales through workplace promotion, allowing employees access terms that can be more favourable than if they had purchased them directly.
Our group protection schemes are normally delivered through a 'group' contract with the employer.
There are some plans available where the employer could offer the facility for employees to take out cover for their spouse. Where we mention spouse or spouse and partner, this can be the employees; spouse, registered civil partner and unmarried partner. Further details can be found in the technical guide for the relevant product.
Our voluntary group protection benefits
Employees buy cover in either £10,000 or £25,000 units. The following normally apply:
| Life Assurance - employee* | Life Assurance - Spouse & Partner* | Critical Illness Cover – employee** | Critical Illness Cover – spouse & partner** | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum membership – new scheme |
| |||
| Minimum membership – existing scheme switching to us | 100 inforce employees | |||
| Minimum annual total premium | £2,000 per policy | |||
| Maximum individual benefit | £250,000 | £250,000 | Lower of £250,000 or 5 x salary | Lower of £150,000 or level of employee’s cover |
| Underwriting requirements | Application form- initial cover and increases in cover | Application form- initial cover and increases in cover | Pre-existing and related condition exclusions | Pre-existing and related condition exclusions |
| Max ‘step’ increase | 1 or 2 steps, as agreed | 1 step | 1 step | 1 or 2 steps, as agreed |
* We issue separate policies for employee and for spouse & partner life assurance.
** We issue a single policy for employee and for spouse & partner critical illness cover.
Applications for life assurance or spouse & partner life assurance
It's normally straightforward for new entrants and employees selecting higher cover levels. They can complete the appropriate application form; our application forms can be found in the literature library. There are also online tools that you may wish to put in place for your client.
Our application forms will ask six health related questions. If they all can be answered 'no', the application has been successfully completed. If one or more of the questions is answered 'yes', it may still be possible to provide cover but the employee must provide more health related information. Our preferred way of gathering this is by telephone interview, this will help us decide whether or not we can provide cover.
Applications for critical illness cover
We don't ask for evidence of good health when the application is made. However, all new cover and increases to cover;
- is subject to the pre-existing and related conditions exclusions, and
- can only take effect on the date the employee first becomes eligible, the annual renewal date or following a 'lifestyle event'.
Please refer to the PDF file: Voluntary critical illness cover quote appendix PDF size: 222KB for further details about the illnesses that can be covered and the pre-existing and related conditions exclusions.
See the relevant technical guides for more information about all the voluntary products that we've mentioned:
PDF file: Voluntary life assurance technical guide PDF size: 832KB
PDF file: Voluntary life assurance for partners technical guide PDF size: 771KB