Changes to QSuper insurance cover

At QSuper, it’s important to us that we provide you with information that helps you understand how changes to our insurance might impact your employees. We recently sent our members a Product and Legislation Update, which outlines these changes, and have also summarised this for you below.

Improved cover for pandemic illnesses

QSuper is committed to looking after the people who look after our community and supporting them when it matters most.

Some QSuper members may be at a higher risk of becoming sick as a result of a pandemic illness as they are working hard on the frontlines.

To make sure these members are protected, from 11 March 2020, QSuper’s pandemic illness exclusion will not apply to members who receive default cover:

• Automatically, as a result of working with the Queensland Government or a default employer, or
• They applied for within the first 120 days of starting work with the Queensland Government or a default employer.

QSuper’s pandemic illness exclusion took effect from 18 March 2020 as a result of COVID-19.

It’s important to note that any existing insurance cover QSuper members had in place prior to 18 March 2020 is not in any way impacted by the pandemic illness exclusion.

Read more about how our pandemic illness exclusion works.

Improved cover for disaster relief efforts – Australian Defence Force Reserves

Before 1 April 2020, if a QSuper member was also a member of the Australian Defence Force Reserves, we could not pay them an insurance benefit if their claim related (either directly or indirectly) to active service in the armed forces of any country or international organisation resulting from:

• Declared war
• Any act of war (including conditions similar to civil war, rebellion, or armed hostilities with any other country or occupation by a foreign power).

This exclusion only applied if members were enrolled in the Australian Defence Force Reserves and were called up for active service.

However, from 1 April 2020, the exclusion does not apply if members are serving in the Australian Defence Force Reserves within Australia as part of a disaster relief effort, for example, as part of an Australian bushfire relief effort.

Insurance for members who applied to join before age 16

If someone applied to become a QSuper member before they turned 16, and was not working for the Queensland Government or a default employer, they may not have been asked any insurance questions as part of the application process. This means they will be provided with default insurance cover automatically when they meet the following eligibility requirements:

• Are aged 25 or older, and have had an Accumulation account balance of $6,000 or more, and
• Have received money into their Accumulation account in the past 13 months.

When they meet these conditions, the premiums for their default cover will be payable at the standard occupational rating instead of the default rate. At this time, QSuper will write to let them know the details of their cover.

For more information

Go to qsuper.qld.gov.au/insurance or read the Accumulation Account Insurance Guide to learn more about the insurance that QSuper offers. If you need more information on these changes and how they could affect you and your staff, we’re always here to help – just contact your Relationship Manager.